The best comics of 2024

The best comic of 2024 is Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees.

It’s a serial killer tale set in a world of anthropomorphic animals. Well-drawn and sharply written, it’s perfect for Dexter and Silence of the Lamb fans and it is a great example of someone creating a story that can only work in the language of comics.  

It’s not that you can’t translate this to other mediums, in America you could do it with the muppets (not that Disney would) or in Japan you could do this with anime. But in comics, one person with the talent and drive can turn in a masterpiece mostly by himself. 

I can’t wait to read what Horvath does next. 

Grommets from writers Rick Remender and Brian Posehn and artists Brett Parson and Moreno Dinisio was a book that surprised me all year long. Here’s the description from Image:

“Two best-friend outcasts navigate the Sacramento suburbs of 1984, where they find a home in skateboard culture and punk rock.”

This may be one of the few comics that could accurately be described as a hang-out book. I loved hanging out with these 1980s era lost boys. 

If you pick this up and enjoy it I also recommend The Sacrificers from Remender, Dave McCaig, Max Fiumara. It is an entirely different sort of thing, a weird fantasy full of strange gods and creatures but wonderful all the same. 

Ok, let me tell you about two books I should have hated or at least completely ignored that I loved this year. 

I was both too old and too young for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when they came out. Too old for the toys and the cartoon to mean anything to me and too young to have read the Frank Millar comics they were lampooning. But this year’s relaunch was written by Jason Aaron and he is one of the best writers working in comics. It’s a wonderful action book with art by Joëlle Jones. It’s friendly enough for new readers and so good that I’m tempted to pick up a few omnibuses to see if there is anything in the 40-year publication history that I may have missed. 

The other is Transformers. I have never, ever, never cared for any version of Transformers. Not toys, not shows, not comics nor Michael Bay movies. But tell me Daniel Warren Johnson, truly one of the great writers and artists of his generation, has taken the reigns and I am in. And man, did that ever work out for me. 

Johnson and artist Mike Spicer craft a bold, fun take on the characters that is full of crazy robot action and just enough heart, and humanity, to make it worth your while.   

I’ve just scratched the surface of great comics this year.

Here are a few other highlights: 

Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, Wonder Woman by Tom King and Daniel Sampere. Helen’s story plays with Conan The Barbarian both the fiction and the fact about the Cimmerian’s author. Wonder Woman explores new territory in character that is almost a century old.

I read and loved everything Mark Waid wrote at DC including World’s Finest and Justice League Unlimited with artist Dan Mora and Batman and Robin Year One with Chris Samnee  

Ice Cream Man continues to be a dark little dose of Twilight Zoneesque horror. 

Fantastic Four (writer Ryan North, and artists Ivan Fiorelli, Carlos Gomez, and Iban Coello) is as fantastical as it should be.  

Gail Simone and David Marquez turned in a very fun Uncanny X-Men  

And Birds of Prey by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero passes the “are you not entertained” test every single month. 

My bank account and the long boxes in my office tell me this isn’t close to everything but these are some of the highlights. If you haven’t caught them yet I hope you try some of these out in the new year.