As always, I like to put my BEST OF list up before the year actually ends, mostly because it drives Greg Burgas crazy. Probably since the last Monday of the year is reasonably close to the end of the year it will drive him less crazy, but we’ll just have to be okay with that. You can't win them all! As always, my feeling is that if I haven’t read it by mid-December (and let's be clear there are MANY I have not read) then I’m not going to be able to get to it in time for it to make my bests and worsts lists anyway so it’s all the same in the end.

So what’s on this year’s list? Well you can bet it’s going to be a lot of stuff I've already been excited about this year, but it's still fun to see it all stacked up here in the end I suppose. Again this year I didn’t have it in me to do any worsts…call it optimism, call it fatigue, readers choice!

Let’s get to it, shall we?





BEST SINGLE ISSUE: BITCH PLANET #1

Kelly Sue DeConnick (w) Valentine de Landro (a) Cris Peters (c) Clayton Cowles (l) – Image Comics

This book blew the competition out of the water. It’s so everything I want in a comic, and everything the industry feels like it NEEDS in a comic. I wrote a whole essay last week about this issue (and the power of first issues) so I won’t drone on and on and on again, but suffice to say it’s wicked smart, totally subverts expectations, perfectly assembled, and tonally so ridiculously on point and effortlessly executed I can’t even. The ONLY problem with this book is that the opening bar is so damn high it will be impossible to top in future issues…but I look forward to seeing them try!

BEST COVER (S): ELEKTRA #3, SILVER SURFER #1 (Variant), BLACK WIDOW #6, THE WICKED + THE DIVINE  #5 (Variant), and ELEKTRA #2 (Variant)

Always one of my toughest categories because there are SO MANY WONDERFUL COVERS – since even a crappy comic can have a completely brilliant cover it’s impossible for me to narrow it down to one. I’m going to go with my "top 5" but click here to see my "Best 52 Covers of 2014" for ALL my favorites.

ELEKTRA #3 by Mike Del Mundo



SILVER SURFER #1 (Variant) by Francesco Francavlla



BLACK WIDOW #6 by Phil Noto



THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #5 (Variant) by Becky Cloonan



ELEKTRA #2 (Variant) by Chris Samnee





BEST SHORT STORY: WYTCHES (Preview Teaser Story)

Scott Snyder (w) Jock (a) – Image Comics

Six brutal pages that told me that the forthcoming Wytches comic was going to be everything I was hoping it would be. Now, if you don’t already know, this Wytches “preview” was a little confusing because most thought it was a more accepted literal preview of the forthcoming book, which is not unreasonable since that’s usually what the previews are. However, this was a gorgeous mean little standalone story that served to introduce readers to some of the ideas and world behind Wytches and damned if it isn’t effective. The only problem with this story is that there isn’t (already) more of it. I hope that Snyder and Jock will return to this twisting little knife of a story someday and show us more, because it’s the kind of story that haunts you long after you stop reading.



BEST MINI-SERIES: LUMBERJANES

Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis (w) Brooke Allen (a) Maarta Laiho (c) Aubrey Alese (l) – Boom! Studios

Technically Lumberjanes has morphed into an ongoing (Hurrah!!!) but it was on my list as a best mini-series already and so here it shall stay. And those first 8 issues do indeed work as a lovely and self-contained story, so it seems only fitting that we allow this arc to still win in the category for which it was intended. If you haven’t read Lumberjanes all you really need to know is that it is filled…literally cover to cover with girls and women of all shapes and sizes, ages and personalities, it is also powered by sheer enthusiastic joy, something often in short supply in comics for some reason. Full of adorably hilarious catch phrases and an energized mythology based story it feels like one part Scooby Doo, one part Nancy Drew, and one part something entirely new (and no, I didn’t mean for all that to rhyme).



BEST WEBCOMIC: NIMONA

Noelle Stevenson

Two years ago I had Nimona winning in this category. It was the year I discovered the comic (and possibly the year it began?) and it was like falling in love. And now, this year, it’s finally ended and though I hate that it is gone, it exists as this perfectly beautiful and bittersweet comic whose ending is so emotional and well earned that I can only be grateful that such a wonderful comic – a complete whole beautiful thing – exists. Nimona is filled to the brim with feelings and jokes and everything that makes the world worth walking around in. If you haven’t read it, I urge you to go and read it from the beginning (available in its entirety for free online) and then, once you fall in love, make sure to pick up the print edition when released in May 2015 from Harper Teen.



BEST NEW NON-SUPERHERO ONGOING: WYTCHES

Scott Snyder (w) Jock (a) Matt Hollingsworth (c) Clem Robins (l) – Image Comics

If we had a few more issues out of Bitch Planet, I might have had to give it to BP, but since a first issue is more of a promise of an ongoing than an actual ongoing, I’m going to give it to the still young but brutally impressive and utterly terrifying Wytches. With a story rooted in painful relatable reality and a razor edge of horror that infects every single page, Snyder and Jock have created a beautiful but mean little book that is absolutely unwilling to pull punches to the benefit of us all. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for this book every month and absolute terrified about where it’s headed. So far it’s one of the best horror comics I’ve ever read and it will solidify Snyder as a horror comic master, if he’s not already there.

Go to the next page for more!



BEST NEW SUPERHERO ONGOING: MS. MARVEL

Willow Wilson (w) Adrian Alphona, Jake Wyatt (a) Ian Herring (c) Joe Caramagna (l) Sana Amanat, Nick Lowe (editors) – Marvel Comics

Light and fun, beautiful and bold, smart and heroic, this book has everything a superhero book should have and more. It’s the little book that could and it’s feeling like it’s hitting just the right audience and at a time when people just NEEDED it. The fan reaction to this book has been incredible (and rightly so) but the critical acclaim has been equally as incredible and well earned. We waited a REALLY long time for a young female heroine of color to lead her own book, but I guess seeing them get it this right, it was worth the wait.



BEST NON-SUPERHERO ONGOING: LAZARUS

Greg Rucka (w) Michael Lark (a) Santi Arcas (c) Jodi Wynne (l) David Brothers (editor) – Image Comics

It feels like I’ve talked at length about my love of Lazarus but I’ll do it one more time this year! This is a near perfect book with some of the best most integrated and effortless world building I’ve ever seen. The lead, Forever Carlyle, was my pick for best new character of 2013, and she rocketed to the top of my favorite fictional females list for 2014 (coming in at #4). I do not exaggerate when I say she’s poised to become one of the best comic characters of all time – and by the guy that’s created many of the best, it’s not really that surprising. Together Rucka, Lark, and Arcas have created something truly special, a book that stands out in an already crowded field and is just magnificent from month to month.



BEST SUPERHERO ONGOING: BATMAN

Scott Snyder (w) Greg Capullo, Danny Miki (a) FCO Plascencia (c) Steve Wands (l) Mark Doyle (editor) – DC Comics

In a very crowded competition (translation: I read a lot of superhero comics) it’s pretty impressive that more than three years into their run on Batman, Snyder and Capullo are still impressing and surprising me. This was a strong year for the book what with all the Zero Year storyline even before the shock and awe that is Endgame began, but Endgame helped clinch the title for Batman edging out other superhero favorites of mine like Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and She-Hulk. Well done, Bats, well done, you prove you are my favorite superhero for good reason, yet again. Helps you've got a smart, strong, considerate, and consistent creative team. :)



BEST YA ONGOING: GOTHAM ACADEMY

Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher (w) Karl Kerschl (a) Geyser, Msassyk, Serge Lapointe, Dave McCaig (c) Steve Wands (l) Mark Doyle (editor) – Image Comics

Easily my most anticipated book of this year it’s totally impressive that this book managed to both live up to and then surpass my already inflated expectations. A little bit Batman, a little bit Harry Potter, and a little bit it’s own very awesome thing, Gotham Academy feels fresh and new and exciting and yet also rooted in all the Batman stuff I love as a longtime fan. It’s both totally rewarding for die-hard fans with a heavy knowledge of Gotham city's inner workings and players and yet and totally new reader friendly…no easy feat.



BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL: THROUGH THE WOODS

Emily Carroll - Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books

Tight race this year between three exceptional works, two beautiful collections – Emily Carroll’s Through The Woods and Eleanor Davis’s How To Be Happy (Fantagraphics), and the all-new graphic novel Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann, Kerascoet, and Helge Dascher. After much painful hemming and hawing I give it to Through The Woods, but it’s honestly neck and neck. The books, strangely, are simultaneously completely different and yet similar. They mine different types of stories and themes, but the threads that flow through them have a lot of commonality. In the end, the fairy tale-ness of Carroll’s Through The Woods is like a siren song I cannot resist. Also, while both books are beautiful editions, I have to give bonus points to Carroll’s translation of her web comics to print. They have adapted beautifully – with such careful attention to negative space, placement of text, and color – the book is quite simply a masterpiece.



BEST YA ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL: THIS ONE SUMMER

Mariko Tamaki (w) Jillian Tamaki (a) Jillian Tamaki (c) Jillian Tamaki (l) – First Second

This book, I mean, I’m a fan of Jillian Tamaki so I guess I shouldn’t have been taken by surprise, but I was anyway. It is a beautiful kind of bittersweet little book. It’s not full of horrible tragedies or awful secrets, it’s just about two summer friends naturally pulling apart as they grow up and away from one another. It’s sensitive and smart and it makes you ache for it in the all the right places. Add to all of that Jillian Tamaki’s visuals, which are just stunningly unlike much else that we see in comics these days – so real and relatable, so full of movement and grace, art that finds terrible beauty even in the ungainly awkward corners of a life – it’s magnificent.

And one more page to get to the rest of the list!



BEST NEW CHARACTER: MIA “MAPS” MIZOGUCHI

From Gotham Academy – DC Comics

Created by: Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl

What did I do before I had Maps in my life?

Pure undiluted enthusiasm for LIFE. That is Maps. Unconcerned with being seen as geeky or over eager, or awkward or inexperienced, Maps just takes the world by the balls and goes for it. She doesn’t care what you think of her and all her weird little quirks because she just KNOWS she’s awesome. And I love her so much for it.

Also, she shouts out HARPY when an owl scares her at night. How can you not love a girl whose first instinct is to shout out HARPY? You cannot, that’s how.



SERIES I’M GOING TO MISS THE MOST: SHE-HULK and HAWKEYE (TIE)

She-Hulk: Charles Soule (w) Javier Pulido (a) Muntsa Vicente (c) Clayton Cowles (l) Jeanine Schaefer, Sana Amanat (editors) – Marvel Comics

Hawkeye: Matt Fraction (w) David Aja, Annie Wu, Chris Elipoulos (a) Jordie Bellaire, Matt Hollingsworth (c) David Aja, Chris Elipoulos, (l) Sana Amanat (editor) – Marvel Comics

I’d give it to Hawkeye but since we are actually getting a replacement Hawkeye book it seems unfair to say I will not like it as much as the old Hawkeye when I haven’t read a word. It’s true that my brain sort of cannot fathom the idea that I might like the new as much as the old, but I’m trying to keep an open mind. The book that would be a close second is She-Hulk. Man, this title took me by surprise. It had a bit of a slow start, but by issue #7 (aka the Honey I Shrunk My Superheroes issue) it was easily one of the best books I was reading and that was even with two weak guest penciled issues that didn’t quite work. Soule and Pulido found a perfect sync for She-Hulk and it’s a damn shame we’re not getting more of it. Plus, those Kevin Wada covers? SWOON. I hope The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl will at least fill SOME of the gaping She-Hulk sized hole that has been left in my heart. L



BEST PUBLISHER: IMAGE

I really like the changes I’m seeing from DC and if I was giving an award for “most improved” they’d get it just for the moves I’ve seen in the last few months, let alone what I know is still coming, and I like A LOT of what I'm seeing out of Dark Horse, Boom!, and IDW, as well as Marvel's considerable push toward female led books, but Image still managed to absolutely dominate my pull list this year with books like Lazarus, Wytches, Bitch Planet, Saga, Velvet, The Fade Out, The Wicked + The Divine, Copperhead, Deadly Class, Pretty Deadly, Sex Criminals, Alex + Ada...it’s actually kinda ridiculous. With such domination they must be doing something right. With their creator owned model there’s a lot to like and obviously their content speaks for itself – both in the quality of the books we’re seeing and in the number and quality of creators we’re seeing head over there. I worry a little bit that they’re growing fast -- not all books have the same level of editing and quality control – but that’s true with any publisher, they are hitting on all cylinders basically and I find myself really excited to see what they’ll announce next month at Image Expo too as that’s for the last couple years been pretty exciting to see.



BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Directed by: Anthony & Joe Russo. Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely Concept & Story: Ed Brubaker. Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Sebastian Stan, and Cobie Smulders. Marvel Studios.

Yup. It was close between Guardians of the Galaxy and Winter Soldier, but I do think WS is the superior film on every level, if only by a little bit. But especially when it comes to women GotG has a real Achilles heel compared to Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow absolutely killing WS and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill doing a bit of fine work as well – work that leveled up my entire estimate of both Smulders/Hill. If you don’t care as much about female characters I can see how GotG would be your pick, it is undoubtedly a ton of fun and I loved it. But when I walked out of Winter Soldier I didn’t have a single complaint. It remains one of the best action movies or superhero movies I’ve ever seen. The latter being far easier to do than the former, of course.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST IN 2015:

Gosh. So much. So much more than my wallet can afford. Obviously Bitch Planet tops this list as I cannot wait to see where Kelly Sue DeConnick takes that book. I am excited to continue reading so many of the great books listed above and so many more that I’ve talked about over the year. Add to that new books like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Princess Leia, Spider-Gwen, Silk (Stacey Lee!!!!), Egos, Pastaways, Chrononauts, Southern Cross (Becky Cloonan!!!!), Descender (Dustin Nguyen!!!) and my pal Meredith McClaren’s excellent webcomic Hinges is being collected by Image in February (if you didn’t already get it through her Kickstarter as I did).



Though I am not particularly looking forward to the big DC and Marvel events this spring/summer, I am excited to see if maybe some interesting things will come out of that – especially at DC I hope there are some new books for me to read. I have been really excited about the changes at DC over the last few months – lots of fresh new talent and strong voice bringing some much needed change to the DC style of late – giving us some variety we’ve been missing for a long while now.

But I cannot tell a lie. What I am MOST looking forward to in 2015 is obviously JEM. I won’t bore you all with the details as most of you know already (and have been so generous in your support in congratulations) but I’m writing IDW’s new JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS book. It’s a huge opportunity for me and I am loving it. I am naturally both terrified and ecstatic, but mostly I am feeling so incredibly lucky to be doing this thing with my good friend and one of the best artists in the business, Ross Campbell. So yeah, that’s what I’m thankful for this year, and what I’m most looking forward to in the coming year. For those of you that plan to read, I hope you enjoy it too!

What about you guys? What made your best of 2014 lists?


Kelly Thompson is a freelance writer living in Manhattan. She is the author of the superhero novel THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING recently optioned to become a film, and her new novel STORYKILLER is out now. She is also writing the forthcoming JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS comic from IDW. You can find Kelly all over the place, but twitter may be the easiest: @79semifinalist