Top Comics to Buy for January 2, 2019

By Zack Quaintance — Oh hey, would you look at that? We got the date for this piece right! Though, we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a challenge. Basically, the New Year has arrived folks! Bringing with it those always-confusing date problems that take place in writer’s heads before we’ve fully adjusted.

Last week’s post-Christmas crop of comics was pretty barren (although it wasn’t without some great titles). This week’s bunch is a bit better, at least in terms of volume. What’s also great is that some of our favorite series from 2018—namely Action Comics and Immortal Hulk—have new installments! Pair that with the start of Jason Aaron’s highly-anticipated run of Conan the Barbarian, and hey, maybe this year will be starting off special.

All that said, let’s take a closer look!

Top Comics to Buy for January 2, 2019

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*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Action Comics #1006
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Ryan Sook
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Josh Reed
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
The Red Cloud sets her sights on someone close to Superman, but how can the Man of Steel stop a villain he can't touch? As the invisible mafia controlling Metropolis' underworld steps more into the light, its leader finally stands revealed with a secret that will have massive implications for Superman and Clark Kent!
Why It’s Cool: At this time last year, the vast majority of comic book fandom didn’t even know which DC characters long-time Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis would be taking over when he made the jump to DC. Fast forward to now, and it’s almost hard to remember that Bendis didn’t spend all of last year writing Superman stories. His work on the character has been (in my personal opinion) fantastic, and leading the way is the Daily Planet-heavy story taking place in Action Comics. It continues to build this week with an expanded look into corners of Metropolis that have rarely been seen, setting as it does some track for more major happenings later on in the year. Also, competition is fierce, but of all the top-tier artists Bendis has collaborated with since coming over to DC, I do believe that Ryan Sook is my favorite. This may be his last issue of Action Comics for the foreseeable future, but later this year he and Bendis will be collaborating on something larger, which is definitely something to keep an eye on. Oh, and speaking of last year: can you believe some yutz suggested Bendis was taking over Green Arrow? Absurd!

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Conan the Barbarian #1
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Mahmud Asrar
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
BY CROM, THE GREATEST SWORD-AND-SORCERY HERO RETURNS TO MARVEL!
From an age undreamed...hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet...Robert E. Howard's creation returns to comics, in an epic tale as only MARVEL could bring you!  Conan's travels have brought him to the far reaches of the unkown, from his birthplace in Cimmeria to the kingdom of Aquilonia and all in between. As his fighting prowess allows him to carve his way through life, so too does it attract the forces of death! The all-new ages-spanning saga begins here, by writer Jason Aaron (THE MIGHTY THOR, STAR WARS) and artist Mahmud Asrar (UNCANNY X-MEN, ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS), as Conan's destiny is forever changed!
Why It’s Cool: Jason Aaron has done absolutely incredible things with the Thor franchise, crafting what is currently the best years-long superhero run in all of comics. He just has a knack for the epic, nigh-biblical brutality inherent to norse mythology. And what, if any, comic book franchise just so happens to feel like a close cousin to norse mythology? That’s right, Conan the Barbarian. Aaron takes the keys of that book with Conan the Barbarian #1, the first in a trio of new Conan comics from Marvel, who snagged the rights for the character last year. As Thor starts to wind down with this year’s War of the Realms event, Aaron looks to start another all-time great stretch of comic book writing right here with this one.

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Crowded #6
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Ro Stein
Inker: Ted Brandt
Colorist: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Cardinal Rae
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Trapped with the psychopathic streaming superstar Trotter on one side and all of Los Angeles carrying a weapon and a two-million-dollar-dream on the other, Charlie and Vita have only each other-and a few of the secrets they've been keeping from each other-to rely on for their survival.
Why It’s Cool: There is no shortage of stories in comics right now that envision terrifying futures. Hell, there’s no shortage of stories in comics right now that envision terrifying near futures. That said, Crowded has distinguished itself as one of the best, doing so with a mixture of big ideas and seasoned pacing moves from one of the best writers of creator-owned comics in the industry today: Christopher Sebela. Of the many excellent new Image Comics launched in 2018 (more on that next week...stay tuned!), this is one of the best.

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Immortal Hulk #11
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Joe Bennett
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
"HULK IN HELL" PART ONE!
Jackie McGee is in hell. Carl Creel is in hell. Walter Langkowski is in hell. Eugene Judd is in hell. Carl Burbank is in hell.  Los Diablos is in hell. Shadow Base is in hell. New Mexico is in hell. Planet Earth is in hell. We are all in hell...
 ...and so is the IMMORTAL HULK.
Why It’s Cool: As you may or may not find out in this week’s forthcoming Best Comics of 2018, our committee of one absolutely loved Immortal Hulk last year, finding it to be a comic that both spoke to the essence of a classic character while pushing this franchise into novel new territories. This book, in other words, could do no wrong, and because of this, we’re very much excited to see where it’s all headed in the New Year. Based on preview text, that place is clearly hell, which, awesome.

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The Walking Dead #187
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Inker: Stefano Gaudiano
Gray Tones: Cliff Rathburn
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
"THE ROAD BACK"
Can Rick Grimes bring peace to the Commonwealth-or will he tear it apart?
Why It’s Cool: Although the jury is still out on whether it’s working, Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard are clearly trying to sophisticate and evolve the central metaphor at the heart of their long-running Walking Dead comic, perhaps to avoid the ironically slow death that seems to be afflicting the television show (what with the lead actor begging out, and everything). It remains to be seen, of course, whether they stick the landing, but the emotional heart of this current plotline is Michonne, and it’s pretty well-done, so much so I find the book engaging in a way it hasn’t felt since before Negan got put in that cage. There’s a weird metaphor at work here too, wherein the governor of the town where everyone is content and cared for, yet class discrepancy runs wild, looks a whole lot like Hillary Clinton, which has the lasting effect of reminding us of simpler times with more understated political problems. Kirkman et. al clearly thought like most of us that she would win and are left holding the bag...if only they could bring back Negan, who, let’s face it, is basically Trump.

Top New #1 Comics

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• Champions #1

• Infinity Wars: Infinity #1

• Man Without Fear #1

• Star Wars Age of Republic: Obi-Wan Kenobi #1

• Wolverine Long Night #1

Others Receiving Votes

• Archie 1941 #1

• Archie #701

• BPRD Devil You Know #12

• Detective Comics #995

• Giant Days #46

• Hex Wives #3

• Justice League Odyssey #4

• Marvel Knights 20th #5

• Redneck #18

• Shatterstar #4

• Terrifics #11

• Titans #32

• Tony Stark: Iron Man #7

• Unnatural #6

• Winter Soldier #2

See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase. He also writes comics and is currently working hard to complete one.

Top Comics to Buy for December 26, 2018

By Zack Quaintance — Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, everyone! And an early Happy New Year! This is a weird week for new comics. Diamond, the sole direct market comic book distributor, kindly gave employees a week off for the holidays. DC Comics isn’t releasing any titles (instead spreading its output across the five Wednesdays in January), and the offerings from other publishers are relatively sparse.

So, what does that mean for our beloved Top Comics to Buy for December 26 feature? What does that mean for commerce!? What does that mean for America??!? Relax. We’re still going to get it done (you are, after all, reading this right now...aren’t you?), but we’re going to do it a bit differently. Instead of our usual three sections, we’re just going to have one, and as you’re about to see, while there aren’t a ton of new books out today, there are still a few that very much demand some attention.

Let’s check them out!

Top Comics to Buy for December 26, 2018

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*PICK OF THE WEEK*
X-Force #1
Writer: Ed Brisson
Artist: Dylan Burnett
Colorist: N/A
Letterer: N/A
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
FROM THE ASHES OF EXTERMINATION!
Cable is dead...and now, the original X-Force team of Domino, Cannonball, Shatterstar, Boom Boom and Warpath. must hunt down the murderer of their former leader! The mutant militia are hot for blood...but when their target is the time-traveling younger version of their fallen mentor, is there a line they absolutely cannot cross? And what does Deathlok have to do with all of it? From Ed Brisson (EXTERMINATION, OLD MAN LOGAN) and Dylan Burnett (COSMIC GHOST RIDER), comes an all-new, high-octane mutant adventure! A reckoning will come!
Parental Advisory
Why It’s Cool: The Extermination mini-series was also from new X-Force writer Ed Brisson, and—X-Men: Red aside—that was one of our favorite X-stories all year. Not to go into spoiler territory, but this book seems to be growing from the ashes of what all happened in Extermination, which is exciting indeed. Brisson, for our money, also tells some of the cleanest stories in the X-offices these days, providing a nice counterbalance to the ongoing continuity chaos that drives the rest of the frenetic work being done by the new generation of X-writers.    

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Bone Parish #5
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colorist: Alex Guimarães
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99
The war between the Winters and the Cartel continues its bloody rampage. With the terrible power of the Ash behind them, the Winters stand a decent chance. But Ash is not without its dangers, and some of them are already falling to Ash Madness…
Why It’s Cool: We’ve been digging this comic since Bone Parish #1, which caught us somewhat off-guard with its combination of creepy artwork, New Orleans setting, and drug trafficking drama. The plot has really accelerated as of late (which is saying something seeing as this is a comic that started with a woman using drugs that made her commune with the dead), and the preview for this issue makes it seem like all kinds of post-Christmas fireworks are in store. It is not to be missed!

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Die! Die! Die! #6
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Co-Plotter: Scott M. Gimple
Artist: Chris Burnham
Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Wow! I can't believe that happens in this issue! Or that! Or that, that and that!!!
Why It’s Cool: While Die! Die! Die! may be one heck of a logistical headache for our retailer friends out there—it never gets solicited, but instead just arrives each month unbidden—we’ve been liking the story and the artwork in this comic quite a bit. We’re not the biggest fans of gratuitous violence (which this book deploys liberally), but writer Robert Kirkman and co-plotter Scott M. Gimple strike just the right kind of over-the-top satirical tone as they go about the ample bloodshed. The entanglement of political power structures seems to hint at this book’s larger satirical ambitions, but for now we’re still largely content to sit back and take in all of Chris Burnham’s wonderfully-rendered absurd action sequences.  

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Go-Bots #2
Writer, Artist, & Letterer: Tom Scioli
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
Cy-Kill and his Renegades declare war on human civilization... and they're winning. Go-Botics freshman A.J. Foster and cynical Go-Bot race car driver, Matt Hunter, along with their friendly Go-Bots Scooter and Turbo, flee for their lives as they desperately search for some way to stop the extinction of mankind and the dawn of the planet of the Go-Bots!
From the creative mind that brought you IDW's Transformers vs. G.I. Joe!
Visionary creator Tom Scioli unleashes his imagination on the bizarre, absurd, and wonderful world of GO-BOTS!
Why It’s Cool: Go-Bots #1 headlined our Comic of the Week feature when it made its debut last month, and with good cause: that debut was an expertly-rendered and whip smart comic that reeled readers in with nostalgia and then hit them with a story about subjugation and rebellion...rebellion by Go-Bots. It was an enticing hook, to say the least, and we’re really excited now to see where writer/artist Tom Scioli will take it from here.

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Mars Attacks #3
Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Chris Schweizer
Colorist: Liz Trice Schweizer
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Price: $3.99
The Carbutt boys continue their trek to safety, this time with the help of the U.S. military, who plan on swatting the Martians like flies...until they see how big the Martian flies are, and, oh boy, there is gonna be a whole mess of trouble!
Why It’s Cool: Speaking of wonderful surprises, it’s only been two issues but writer Kyle Starks and artist Chris Schweizer are also doing fantastic work with Mars Attacks. This is one funny comic, first and foremost, but like Go-Bots and some of the other titles on our list this week, it also has ambitions that go beyond that, with Mars Attacks #2 hilariously painting a picture of the futility of untrained civilian gun enthusiasts crumpling in the face of a real oppressor. The preview for this next issue seems to promise more of the same, and, as such, this comic is not to be missed.

Other Comics Out This Week

• Fantastic Four #6

• Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1956 #2

• Man-Eaters #4

• Marvel Action: Avengers #1

• Superior Spider-Man #1

• Uncanny X-Men #7

(This is literally it.)

See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.

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

REVIEW: Hardcore #1 is a crazy good idea with solid pacing

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Hardcore #1 is out 12/19.

By Zack Quaintance — Robert Kirkman—creator of The Walking Dead, Invincible, etc.—is one of the best idea writers in comics, with any new series attached to his name pretty much guaranteeing a certain accessible sort of enthralling-yet-simple conceit. It’s a level of vision that has made him basically as successful as one can get within the industry. In fact, it’s been said that he first pitched The Walking Dead as having a twist part-way through that would see aliens arrive and have been responsible for the zombies, because no one but him could see a world in which just doing a simple zombie comic would work.

This is all a long way of noting that the idea behind Hardcore #1 was first created by Kirkman and seminal artist Marc Silvestri, back in 2010 for the Top Cow pilot season concept, which saw that publisher running a series of original concepts, essentially first issue pitches. Well now Kirkman’s own Image Comics imprint is reviving some of those (see Stellar early in the year), and Hardcore is among them.

Taken over here by the more-than-capable team of Andy Diggle (Thief of Thieves) and Alessandro Vitti (Iceman), Hardcore is the story of a government program involving a new technology that allows operatives to pilot the bodies of other humans, often using them as drone-like assassins to takeout threats to national security, or dictators, or whomever. The use of drone in that description is intentional, given that this comic goes to pretty blatant lengths to draw a connection between the tech central to its plot and drone piloting, essentially painting this as the next evolution of those military initiatives.   

It’s a solid enough idea, but one that could have played as simplistic if not executed properly. Diggle and Vitti, however, are a more than capable team to pass it off to, delivering a tightly-plotted and impeccably-paced story here that gleefully bounces from one suspenseful plot point to the next. This is a fantastic first issue, in that the creators here manage to fill us in on all the needed exposition in a way that feels like it has stakes, rather than being a transparent and slow info dump (a pet peeve of mine in debuts).

What also does wonders for this book is that rather than sticking to the straight governmental military angle, the story here introduces an element of proprietary conflict. Not to spoil too much, but the primary villain of this story is the man who invented the technology that allows users to occupy from a remote location the bodies of others. He resents that another pilot—our main character—has been tapped to use the innovation he developed, and...well, you’ll have to read the book, but what he does from there creates waves likely to power this story quite well moving forward. Vitti is a great choice to render this whole thing, deploying a style here that’s reminiscent of both the tech and military worlds at once, as well as intricately detailed in an almost photo-realistic way throughout much of the exciting proceedings.   

Overall: A fantastic execution of an unsurprisingly solid idea for a new comic, Hardcore is one of those first issues that expertly drops off all the needed exposition as it hops along its perfect pacing. The overall quality of this comic, however, will be determined by where it goes now that its foundation has been laid. 8.0/10

Hardcore #1
Story By: Robert Kirkman and Andy Diggle
Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Alessandro Vitti
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

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

Best Debut Comics of March 2018

There’s a special feeling at comic shops on Wednesdays when two HUGE books drop, an awareness that not only are we getting great comics, but we’re getting something else we love too: an easy Book A vs. Book B debate. In general, these types of big books are usually event stories starring flagship characters from the Big 2. In general, but not always.

Let’s look at this March, during which we got two major books on one Wednesday that were both creator-owned titles by industry titans: Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Invincible) and Jeff Lemire (insert 20 titles here). I read and loved both Kirkman’s Oblivion Song and Lemire’s Gideon Falls and think that years from now we’ll look at March 7, 2018, awed that two titles like this launched on the very same day.

And you know what? I have no desire whatsoever to pit them against each other. Now, maybe this means I’ve evolved as a fan (unlikely), or (more likely) maybe it means there are so many high quality books lately that asserting an aggressive preference gets too tiresome, too quickly. For I am a simple man and have not come to the Internet to debate.

I have, however, come to tell you about the best debut comics for March 2018. Let’s do it!

Eternity Girl #1 of 6 by Magdalene Visaggio & Sonny Liew

Our first list falls into what I’m starting to think of as DC’s burgeoning prestige sadness category, which as of now contains basically just Eternity Girl and Mister Miracle. Magdalene Visaggio’s Eternity Girl is an eclectic book thematically, one that raises questions about suicide, disassociation from life, post-traumatic stress, malleable identities, and the always-elusive proper role one plays in the world. You can see why I’d draw a comparison to Tom King’s industry-shaking Mister Miracle. In other words, this is indeed an intriguing book. One last thing it shares in common with Mister Miracle is incredible art, this time courtesy of Sonny Liew. Have you seen some of these upcoming covers? So awesome it’s crazy, or it makes me feel a little crazy, hard to parse which is the case.

Gideon Falls #1 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, & Dave Stewart

In January I got a copy of this for advanced review, so I’ve already heaped mounds of praise on Gideon Falls. With that in mind, I’ll just quickly recap now why I loved the latest collaboration between Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, and Dave Stewart so much.

As I said in January, this is a book deserving of a large and devoted audience, and given the star power of its creators, it will likely find it. The intrigue of the storytelling will ultimately make Gideon Falls one to follow for the long haul. It’s got influences of David Lynch, filtered through Jeff Lemire’s increasingly sharp sensibilities, and comics don’t get much better than that.

Infinity 8 #1 by Lewis Trondheim, Zep, & Dominique Bertail

Infinity 8 #1

This is such a polished and strong debut, one that offers a clear character with compelling desires from its start, those desires here being a deep longing to reproduce. Dominique Bertail’s art is stylish and imaginative, idealizing the human form and going wild when alien designs or space debris call for it. Overall, Infinity 8 is a story conceptualized to be three arcs of three issues, plotted and directed by French creatives Lewis Trondheim and Olivier Vatine. Based on entertaining I found this one issue, I’m in for the duration.

 

 

Oblivion Song #1 by Robert Kirkman & Lorenzo De Felici

I am admittedly a Robert Kirkman fan. While I don’t watch The Walking Dead television show (and haven’t since back in season 2), I am a fan of The Walking Dead comic. I’m an even bigger fan of the recently concluded independent superhero book Invincible, and a slightly less enthusiastic fan of the ongoing Outcast by Kirkman and Azaceta, which, make no mistake, I also think is quite good.

All of that is a lengthy preamble to saying Oblivion Song is Kirkman’s best debut yet. I recently The Walking Dead #1, and most of the flack Kirkman has gotten for his early simplicity of concept and wonky dialogue isn’t misplaced, not entirely. These are issues. They are, however, not issues in his newest book, which has a layer of complexity his previous works have lacked. Word also has it that the creative team here is two years ahead. All of which seems to indicate that Kirkman is still learning and still very much excited about telling graphic stories. Very cool.

Oblivion Song #1

Shadowman #1 by Andy Diggle, Stephen Segovia, & Ulises Arreola

Valiant Comics is in a state of flux. It was recently bought in full by Chinese investors. Most the senior staff that us comic folks know and love are gone (Dinesh!), and word has it the new directive is increased focused on Valiant films. Blerg.

This is all very concerning for Valiant Comics fans, and while it may be time to worry, books like Shadowman #1 show that it’s not quite time to straight panic. It was so good to see Jack again in this book, and while this may not be entirely accessible to virgin Shadowman readers, I think Andy Diggle’s script does enough to orient while also setting up compelling questions one can only assume the coming issues will answer.

Vampironica #1 by Greg and Megan Smallwood

Veronica Lodge is a vampire, that’s the simple concept here, but what makes this book worthy of a spot among the best debut comics of March 2018 is not the concept but rather the execution. Greg Smallwood is a superstar, and his talents are especially evident when applied to the occult (see his recent Moon Knight run with Jeff Lemire). So, Vampironica is a fast and pretty read, and while I hate to use the word fun to describe a comic—so vague and reductive—that’s exactly what this series looks to be, fun and blood-soaked and cheesy and escapist and...why not?

See last month's best debuts!

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

The Best Long-Running Image Books (We Take for Granted)

Something shiny and new is almost always more attractive than something reliable you can depend on. This is a concept so worn out it’s become a cliche, ending hundreds of TV marriages and sparking many a mid-life crises.

But as with most cliches, there’s truth to it, especially in our beloved world of comics. As we’re all aware, the path to big profit in the comics industry has long been paved with new #1 issues, and, really, this cliche is a big part of why.

Comics and capitalism are inextricably tangled; it’s part of what makes comics such an American art form. We all love the idea that a #1 we buy for $3.99 could net a few hundred bucks later. Also, it’s just so much easier to understand a story when you read it from its start.

Reasons aside, fans buy more #1 issues and reviewers tend to write about #1s more as well. Meanwhile, there are amazing books in their 30s, or 50s, or even their 170s that we’re barely acknowledging. We know these books will be good, every damned month. They’re on our pull lists and we’ve maybe even bought them to reread in trade, and yet it’s the new #1s that drive us crazy.

Not me, man. I want to give older books some love, specifically those at Image, before the spring comes and the publisher launches another wave of new creator-owned work, work like Steve Orlando and Garry Brown’s Crude, Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici’s Oblivion Song, Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s Gideon Falls (read our advanced review), and David F. Walker and Sanford Greene’s Bitter Root (read why we’re excited).

So, today we’ll be looking at why these new books are so awesome and sexy and good and so fricking cool and totally worth all your money and mine—gah! Wait a minute, that’s not what we’re doing at all! Damn this attractive newness!!

Ahem. Today we’re looking at our favorite dependable titles, the ones deep in their runs and still going strong. Sure, they’re not as mysterious or full of possibilities as they once were, but these books are part of us. We’ve been through so much together, we’ve grown together, and we care for each other deeply. Or, we would if they the books sentient, instead of flimsy paper.

Anyhoo, let’s get to our look at the best long-running Image books we all take for granted!   

The Walking Dead, Outcast and Invincible

The Walking Dead is the epitome of an excellent long-running book that’s so dependable it gets ignored. Take #175, for example, which *SPOILER* contained an intriguing status quo shift along with a twist for a major character so powerful it made me tear up. This deep in a run, that’s quite an achievement. Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s monthly pace on this book is also torrid, and I can’t even remember the last delay! (We’re in for a long post this week, but we should also note that Kirkman’s Outcast is fantastic and Invincible is headed towards a killer ending.)

Potential to end soon: Low. Kirkman says nothing is eminiment, but he knows how the book will end. The book also sells like gangbusters (hey, 1923 called, they want their hacky adjective back). So, we don’t envision an ending coming before issue #200, which is more than 2 years away right now.

Descender

Descender is a true sci-fi adventure with a varied cast and a plot heavy with well-constructed secrets. Frankly, this is one of the most compelling mystery stories in comics. As I’ve noted in the past, we’re nearly 30 issues in, and I have little idea about this book’s end game, even though I can tell there have been ample clues.The art is also incredibly special. One of the things I enjoy most about Lemire’s titles is he works with artists who fit his stories, and Dustin Nguyen is no exception. Descender’s robots and their relationships with humanity raise questions about the nature of existence, and Nguyen’s lush watercolor pallet steeps these questions with a fitting existential haze.

Potential to end soon: High with an Asterix. Lemire recently teased a “last arc” on Twitter, before quickly noting he didn’t mean the end of Descender. So an “ending” might be coming, but it’s probably won’t be an ENDING.

Saga

Saga is, quite simply, my favorite, and yet, it landed at #8 on my best of 2017 and has only been in my monthly best of list once in the five months I’ve done them. Why? Well, it’s partially because I’m human, and I love me some newness. But also, it’d be boring if every best of list was: Oh, look at that, Saga wins again. Yawn. Anyway, Saga is amazing, and Brian K. Vaughan is basically the writer equivalent of the comic book we take for granted, too, because he’s just so reliable. He’s at a point in his career where his two ongoings, Saga and Paper Girls, brim with ideas, three-dimensional characters, and chingos of plot twists, so much so we all just expect it. Really, it speaks to the number of amazing comics that are around nowadays that we have the luxury of taking a writer as good as Vaughan for granted.

Potential to end soon: Super low. Vaughan says he wants Saga to go forever, which, okay, is probably over-ambitious because while the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak and dies between ages 80 - 100, if we’re lucky. However, I could see another decade of Saga, following the life of its narrator, Hazel, in near-real time. What a glorious thing that would be.

The Wicked + The Divine

I’ve long thought of The Wicked + The Divine as a foundational title for modern Image, one that should be at the forefront of any conversation about the wave of varied and diverse creator-owned work from the publisher. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie are one of the best teams in comics (shout out to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips), having also teamed together on Young Avengers at Marvel and multiple Phonogram stories. Wic + Div (as us REALLY hip folks call it) though, is their opus, a stylish and perfectly-executed epic about music fandom and fame and a pantheon of fleeting gods destined to be destroyed.

Potential to end soon: High...Probably. I haven’t gone back to look, but I’m pretty sure Kieron Gillen has said he’s winding this book down about three times now. Thus the PROBABLY. The HIGH, meanwhile, is because after the latest issue, it really does seem like an end game is in motion. The last arc was loaded with action and punctuated by a surprise so shocking it sent me to my back issues to read this book from the start. It all makes sense, and it’s all fantastic.

East of West

East of West reads like a complex alternate history of the U.S., as told by someone from an alternate dimension. I’ve used that last descriptor—as told by someone from an alternate dimension—to describe Jonathan Hickman’s work in the past, and if the early issues of The Black Monday Murders are any indication, I’ll probably be using it again in the future. This book has gotten better with time. I found it convoluted until the creators included a timeline that laid out the political machinations of the involved nations, but from that point on I’ve been riveted. I should also note artist Nick Dragotta is creating phenomenal comics here, both with his line work and the stunning dystopian world he creates on each page.

Potential to End Soon: Hickman. That’s right, my exact prediction for when this ends is Hickman. I mean, can you even predict something as precise as an ending with a writer as dense as Hickman? No. You can’t. So, just greedily take the story as it comes and relish the other worlds he manifests for you.

Other Contenders

Last, I’d just like to note this was a tricky list, because how does one quantify a long-running book? In the end, I went by issue number not by debut, which disqualified Southern Bastards, Monstress, and Sex Criminals, three of my favorites that were a little short (this where an aside about the word short would be in Sex Criminals, btw). I know Descender only has a few issues on Sex Criminals, but for some reason it seems a bit more mature (this is where Sex Criminals would do another funny aside).

Moving forward, there are a host of books at Image with potential to reach “long-running and taken for granted status.” I’d put the aforementioned Southern Bastards, Monstress, and Sex Criminals there, as well as newer titles such as Black Monday Murders, Paper Girls, Redneck, Royal City, Seven to Eternity and Snotgirl. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Oblivion Song or Gideon Falls ascend to this conversation, and I haven't read past the first issue of either.

In closing, go forth and be nicer to your bosses and significant others and co-workers and families...all those people in your life who may not be new but are sturdy and dependable and loving and vital. Not to be solipsistic, but I think how we treat those who become routine to us says a great deal about our character. Basically, we must bag and board them for proper storage, just with our thanks and affection rather than with cardboard and plastic (good lord, I’ll stop, I’m so so sorry, what the hell was that last metaphor, was I serious?!).

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.