My Favorite Comics of 2022

Back when Joup was up, I used to always do a "Favorite Comics" list at the end of every year. I got away from that for some time until last year I decided to resurrect the practice. 

And let me get this out of the way at the top: The two Reckless HC GNs that came out this year would be at the top of this list, however, since Reckless just destroys the curve, and since I included it in last year's favorites list, I'm placing it in a class by itself. 

The same caveat applies to Michael Walsh and company's ongoing Horror Anthology The Silver Coin. I love this series so much, it would just be unfair to place it in the Top Ten again this year because, at this rate, it would hold a perpetual spot. So let's just say these two stand alone in their exemplary storytelling.

With that out of the way then, let's get to that list.

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My Favorite Comic Books of 2022:

10) Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin:

Completely. F*cking. Insane. Geoff Darrow returns to his magnum opus and fills every centimeter of every page with some of the best damn art I have ever seen. The story is even crazier than the previous iteration, and the political satire is top-notch. This book was the most fun, and the longest amount of time I spent staring at any comic's pages this year.

9) Pentagram of Horror:

From out of nowhere, Marco Fontanili drops five of the most gorgeous Horror Comics I have ever had the pleasure of holding in my hands. Another top-notch Anthology, Pentagram of Horror knocks it out of the part with its originality both conceptually and artistically. Nothing else out there looks like this, and the range of Horror moves from Black Rites in the Woods to Techno-Paranoia.

8) What's the Furthest Place from Here:

Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss's it's the end of the world and we don't know it story is as unique as the other books we've seen these guys do, whether together or apart. The whole damn thing is one big 'Gottasee,' and any details we learn about the larger world usually just open up wonderful new questions. Plus, I don't think I've seen a book that possesses this much Punk Rock spirit since Teenagers From Mars!

7) That Texas Blood:

Michael Condon and Jacob Phillips' era-spanning Weird Fiction Crime Comic started in 2020 with just a very mild sprinkling of "The Weird," but over the past year, the book has REALLY leaned into that more. Think Season One of True Detective or the Fargo series on FX. There's no telling what era each new story will be in, and even less way to anticipate what kind of darkness will haunt its pages.

6) Hulk:

Nothing about this comic should work. On paper, Banner turning the Hulk into a spaceship and flying him off into the farthest reaches of the cosmos doesn't even move a needle with me - unless it's the "sounds dumb" needle. But with Hulk, Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley bring comics back to the late 70s/early 80s when writers like Bill Mantlo took enormous swings. Every issue of this book is an enormous swing, and what's more, each one connects. The shame here is, apparently Cates has now exited this book, with Ottley finishing the current "Hulk Planet" storyline over the next few months, and then passing the torch and leaving himself. 

5) Spider-Punk:

For this page alone, Cody Ziglar & Justin Mason's Spider-Punk series lands on this list! I'm still not over the absolute joy of seeing a Michael Graves-era Misfits-inspired TaskMaster show up! Beyond that, overall, I really enjoyed this quick, five-issue series, and look forward to seeing Hobart Brown and his friends return. 

4) Sandman Universe - Nightmare Country:

I know last year I gushed about Joe Hill's Sandman/Locke And Key series, saying how it was the closest thing to having a new Sandman series. Well, apparently DC took that as some kind of challenge because this year we get James Tynion IV on Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country and this... shit man, this actually is the Sandman series. Not like a modern take, but it feels just like I'm reading old Sandman issues, and it's awesome. Awesome not just because of nostalgia, but because the story centers on the Corinthian, but Tynion does that wonderful trick where the main characters are not the lead characters, just like Neil Gaiman used to write the original series. I'd say main human protagonist  Madison Flynn definitely shares some storytellers' DNA with Rose Walker, and Misters Agony and Ecstasy definitely bring the 80s Clive Barker vibes. All in all, a very welcome addition to Gaiman's mythos, more so than any of the other Sandman Universe books I've taken a chance on and largely nixed.

3) Do A Powerbomb!:

Daniel Warren Johnson body slams the medium AGAIN with his beautiful, heart-rending tale of... inter-dimensional professional wrestling? Yeah, I was surprised A.F. too, but despite my absolute non-interest in the sport, I LOVED this book. It broke my heart multiple times, and despite a weird turn in the penultimate chapter, the final issue recovered nicely. 

2) Deadly Class: A Fond Farewell:

The final storyline of Rick Remender and Wes Craig's Deadly Class was harrowing, confusing, brutal and poignant. Beautiful and cathartic and just wonderful in every way a comic book should be. A fitting end for characters I've loved since the book launched 8 years ago.

1) Immortal X-Men:

No other comic book made me think about it for WEEKS afterward like Immortal X-Men #1, and almost every issue of the series has held up to that initial promise. Those who feared Hickman's departure from the World of X would lead to a Krakoan decline were wrong - everything Kieron Gillen and Lucas Wernek is doing only adds to and increases the mystery and grandeur of Hickman's blueprint. NOTE: X-Men: Red is also fantastic, however, I didn't want to have two X-Books on this list, so consider it guilty of greatness by way of the larger, X-tapestry.

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Honorable Mentions:

Honorable mentions go to Strange, the series that placed Clea Strange as the MCU's Sorceror Supreme. This one has just been delightful surprise after delightful surprise, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every issue. 

The Elseworlds/One-Possible-Future TMNT: The Last Ronin mini-series follows the single surviving Turtle (still not gonna spoil which one it is!) as they attempt to avenge their siblings' deaths in a techno-dystopian future that calls to mind Frank Miller's classic Ronin (see what they did there?) Begun in 2021, I purposely left Last Ronin off my 2021 iteration of this list because I knew it would finish this year. This one definitely evoked those old-school, Black-and-White Explosion 80s comics I cut my teeth on in my youth, and I enjoyed it immensely because of that.

Finally, I did not include Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's opening entries into their new Bone Orchard Mythos because we're still very early in, and I guarantee this will be in my top of 2023. Thus far, with one Graphic Novel and 4 issues of the first mini-series, this one is nothing short of impressive. Sorrentino's art continues to rank as some of the creepiest Horror Art I've ever seen, and when realizing Lemire's otherworldly scripts, we just get such a hyper-stylized approach that I can do nothing but raise the horns and howl.

What a fantastic year for comics! I will say, it surprises me that so much Marvel has snuck in, but that's an appetite for nostalgia and comfort the last few years instilled in me, and Marvel's top-tier creators continue to reinvent their stable of characters in ways that DC surely must envy. Sorry DC, but putting "Metal" in front of the title of every book just doesn't cut it.

Understanding the Day: A Solid Foundation

Another new single/new album announcement my travels have left me behind on. After seeing The Soft Moon live several years ago for their 2016 album Criminal, I can attest to the fact that, as much as I dig Anthony Vasquez and crew's albums, they're way better live. Regardless, I'm psyched for the new album, Exister, which drops 9/23 on the always amazing Sacred Bones Records! Pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

Saw this dropped and wanted to post it here for posterity's sake:

 

As per usual, I am not watching the trailer, just salivating until 4:2 drops. I still just don't understand how every season of this show is able to get exponentially better than the previous.

 

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Read:

I'm not really getting a lot of time to read while we're out here. Since we arrived, it's been pretty hectic. We almost made an offer on a house last night, but there were two we were interested in that didn't hit the market until today, so we held off. Thing is, the one we almost made an offer on has an open house today, and so does one of the two that goes on sale today. So we could end up screwed. Fine. That'll suck, but I always read shit like that as "Wasn't meant to be." I'm not a believer in Fate, but I have reservations about EVERYTHING at the moment, so I'm happy to let the Universe act as an Equalizer.

No, not that Equalizer. Oh well, you get it. 

Anyway... I haven't had a chance to read much, but I will say, I burned through the comics I bought the other day at Rick's Comic City - GREAT Shop and SUPER nice people - and I cannot get Immortal X-Men #3 out of my head.

Characters I've always loathed and found nothing but boring:

1) Charles Xavier

2) Magento

3) Mystique

4) Destiny

Characters I now find endlessly fascinating: 

See 1-4 above.

I love the graphic representation Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck used to show us Destiny's Precognitive sight and at the same time tease possible future events. Also, I loved how big they went with the one future they did show us, simply because they're never going to show us it again.

What the hell is that? Giant Exodus possessed by The Phoenix Force eating Mr. Sinister (who manages to re-set the timeline first anyway?) This is some crazy shit, but the craziness is fleeting compared to the "game of thrones" going on and the character development. As Dave Buesing from Comic Book Herald points out in the most recent "Talking Krakoa," this is the first deep or probably even good character study on Destiny EVER in X-comics. That says a lot. 

Then there's Mystique, I've never cared for her. When the original X-movies began to use her as a major character I always kinda scratched my head. Even for years after that, whenever I would dabble with an X-book again, I never bought Mystique's post-movies position as a now-major character. All that has changed. Hickman started it, and Gillen is CRUSHING it continuing this fascinating series.

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Playlist:

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - 1957-1972 (Live)

The Blues Brothers - Briefcase Full of Blues

16 Horsepower - Low Estate

Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain

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Card:

Okay, based on my brief run-down of the last few days above, this is a sight for sore eyes. 10 of Disks: Wealth doesn't promise anything, but "A solid foundation" definitely equates to "A good home" in my mind, always has. So okay, let's go out and find a fucking house!

Immortal Funhouse

 

Goddamn if I don't still love every track on Deftones' 2012 (ten years!!!) Koi No Yokan.

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Watch:

 

Tobe Hooper's 1981 carnival-themed slasher flick Funhouse just came back to Shudder, and I had forgotten how insane this flick is. The third act climax alone is enough to leave me going, "Jesus, this is totally f*%king coo-coo. If you haven't seen this one - or if like me it'd been a while - it's definitely a good time to revisit.

 

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Read:

I spent the latter half of this week completely enraptured by and re-reading the first issue of Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men. 

One of the things I liked least about this new, Krakoan era of the X-books is the change in the portrayal of Mr. Sinister. I have always been a HUGE fan of the old-school Sinister introduced in the Claremont-era of Uncanny, with his limited appearances enhancing his, well, sinister aspect. He reeked of dark schemes and unparalleled violence. Now, however, Sinister almost feels like comedic relief at times, and I experienced a considerable degree of cognitive dissonance at this new persona during HoX/PoX. However, Gillen has changed that with this issue, which is entirely from Sinister's perspective and drops the Godfather of all reveals in the book's final page. I literally exclaimed out loud when I reached the end, and have been picking at the ramifications ever since.

 

I've been so into this, I did something I never do - I took to youtube to try and find people talking about this. (I'll be honest, I'm so tempted to try and restart Drinking with Comics, call it the Immortal Drinking with Comics, and only talk about this, however, there's a host of reasons I can think of not to do that, so I'm staying on the sidelines and listening to others talk. So far, this is the best video I've found.

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Playlist:

The Mysterines - Reeling

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

King Woman - Doubt EP

Cypress Hill - Back in Black

Perturbator - I Am the Night

U2 - The Joshua Tree

U2 - War

Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral

Entropy - Liminal

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Jim Williams - Titane OST

Ministry - Moral Hygiene

David Bowie - Scary Monsters

Ghost - Impera

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Ghost - Infestissumam

The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Roaring Night

Boy Harsher - Careful

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher

Tears for Fears - The Tipping Point

Quicksand - Slip

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Card:

Past: Making ideas actionable

Present: Continue to work at what I've put in motion

Future: The work isn't enough. This will require an inner guidance, known to most as intuition. 

Pretty spot-on with what I'm working on, which I believe is soon to reach its conclusion.

Sunshine the Werewolf

 

Man, I miss this band.

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NCBD:

I'm not normally a huge fan of Chris Bachalo's art, but this cover is creepy AF. I've been a little disappointed in this Darkhold series, mainly because it wasn't a series at all, but an Alpha Book - which I dug - followed by a series of one-shot character books, i.e. The Darkhold: Spider-Man, The Darkhold: Iron Man, etcetera, none of which I was ever going to read. That means tomorrow I'm returning to the tale for the Omega issue, not really expecting much. I really thought there would be more Doom in this one. I guess I'll have to try another book dropping this week to get the Doom fix I was hoping for when I picked up the Alpha issue two months ago. That book?

I'm not following the Wastelanders books, but again, I've been in the mood for some Dr. Doom, so hopefully this will satisfy the craving. 

OH MY GOD I CAN'T WAIT TO READ THIS FINAL ISSUE OF INFERNO!!! 

Here I was thinking that there were going to be five issues of this series, and instead, Hickman brings his run on X-Men to a close this week with Inferno #4. I was late to this and I'm bummed it's ending, so I can only imagine how people who have been reading the entire time feel. I guess the big question is, will I stay on after. Well, the newest X-Men book - I feature issue 6 farther down on this list - is a keeper for the time being, but what about anything else? I mean, I'm not currently reading any of the other titles, and several are ending, but there's been solicitations for at least two books slated to launch over the next few weeks. X-Men: Red is one I'll definitely give a chance to, simply because it's being billed as a sequel to the recently ended S.W.O.R.D. book, which I read and loved. But I'm on the fence with Immortal X-Men, which although is said to focus on all the agendas in the mutant ruling body known as The Quiet Council, features Kieron Gillen as writer. I loved what I read of Gillen's The Wicked and the Divine, but ultimately it didn't hold me. Also, his recent take on The Eternals was definitely NOT for me, and his plans for the X-Men kinda sound similar.

We'll see. The trap I'm trying to avoid here is what I have long referred to as "fan inertia," where you dig a book so much, you keep reading it even after the writer who made you love it leaves. 

Often, not a good idea at all. 

Another badass cover. This second arc of Two Moons has really been throwing curveballs, can't wait to see where the story goes next.

I really have no idea what to expect from this book anymore, so I'm happy to just go with the flow. 

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Cast:

The latest issue of A Most Horrible Library went up on all podcast platforms yesterday. In it, Chris Saunders and I discuss, among other things, Jeff Lemire and Doug Mahnke's Swamp Thing: Green Hell, which I absolutely LOVED. 

Good to see a return to all-out Horror for a Swamp Thing tale.

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Playlist:

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Disassociation

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

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Card:

Two days in a row. Hmm...