Sunday, January 12, 2020

Revised Best Comics of the Decade Lists

Robert Boyd

At the beginning of the year, I conflated 6 best-of-the-decade lists into one list (two actually--one for publications, one for artists). I figured my work was done. Then this week, I heard about another list that intrigued me, so I wrote about it. At the risk of beating a dead horse, the site that published Kim Jooha's list also published best-of lists from its other contributors. So there were five best-comics-of-the-decade list on this site, a new comics news and criticism site called Solrad. The lists were by:
  • Ryan Carey
  • Rob Clough
  • Daniel Elkins
  • Alex Hoffman
  • Kim Jooha
I liked their lists because they were closer to my tastes. (I have since discovered other best-of lists that were pretty much all superheroes, which I have chosen to ignore.) So I decided to update my list taking into account the five Solrad lists.

Best publications

Titles author Number of times ranked
Daytripper Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon 4
Hawkeye Matt Fraction and David Aja 4
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Emil Ferris 4
Prince Of Cats Ron Wimberly 4
You & A Bike & A Road Eleanor Davis 4
Girl Town Carolyn Nowak 3
Hark! A Vagrant! Kate Beaton 3
Lumberjanes Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Brooklyn A. Allen, Carolyn Nowak, Carey Pietsch, Ayme Sotuyo, Maarta Laiho, Aubrey Aiese 3
Mister Miracle Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Clayton Cowles 3
Saga Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples 3
The Love Bunglers Jaime Hernandez 3
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Derek Charm 3
A Bride’s Story Kaoru Mori 2
Alienation  Inés Estrada 2
Batman Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo 2
Berlin Jason Lutes 2
Big Kids Michael DeForge 2
Black Hammer Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston 2
Copra Michel Fiffe 2
Everything Is Flammable Gabrielle Bell 2
Giant Days John Allison, Max Sarin, Lissa Treiman, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell 2
Goodnight Punpun Inio Asano 2
Grip Lale Westvind 2
House Of X/Powers Of X Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, Marte Gracia, Clayton Cowles, and Tom Muller 2
Julio's Day Gilbert Hernandez 2
Last Look Charles Burns 2
Monstress Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, and Rus Wooton 2
O Human Star Blue Delliquanti 2
The Immortal Hulk  Al Ewing, Joe Bennett 2
The Nib Mat Bors and a cast of thousands 2
The River At Night  Kevin Huizenga 2
The Wicked + The Divine Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie 2
This One Summer Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki 2
Thor Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman 2

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As you can see, the top titles of this revised list are quite different than the previous list. As for the best-ranked artists, the new list looks like this:


author Number of times ranked
Eleanor Davis 7
Matt Fraction 7
Carolyn Nowak 6
Fábio Moon 5
Gabriel Bá 5
Jaime Hernandez 5
Jillian Tamaki 5
Brian K. Vaughan 4
David Aja 4
Emil Ferris 4
Emily Carroll 4
Noelle Stevenson 4
Ron Wimberly 4
Scott Snyder 4
Tom King 4
Alan Moore 3
Aubrey Aiese 3
Ayme Sotuyo 3
Blue Delliquanti 3
Brooklyn A. Allen 3
Carey Pietsch 3
Derek Charm 3
Erica Henderson 3
Fiona Staples 3
Gilbert Hernandez 3
Grace Ellis 3
Greg Capullo 3
Inio Asano 3
Jason Aaron 3
Kat Leyh 3
Kate Beaton 3
Lale Westvind 3
Maarta Laiho 3
Mariko Tamaki 3
Michael DeForge 3
Mitch Gerads 3
Ryan North 3
Shannon Watters 3
Tillie Walden 3
Tom Muller 3
Aidan Koch 2
Al Ewing 2
Ben Mendelewicz 2
Charles Burns 2
Chris Ware 2
David Hine 2
Dean Ormston 2
Francesco Francavilla 2
Gabrielle Bell 2
Gina Wynbrandt 2
Inés Estrada 2
Jamie McKelvie 2
Jason Latour 2
Jason Lutes 2
Jeff Lemire 2
Jim Campbell 2
Joe Bennett 2
Joe Caramagna 2
John Allison 2
John Porcellino 2
Jonathan Hickman 2
Kaoru Mori 2
Kevin Huizenga 2
Kieron Gillen 2
Kyoko Okazaki 2
Lissa Treiman 2
Marco Failla 2
Margot Ferrick 2
Marjorie Liu 2
Marte Gracia 2
Mat Bors 2
Max Sarin 2
Michel Fiffe 2
Olivier Schrauwen 2
Pepe Larraz 2
R.B. Silva 2
Raina Telgemeier 2
Rus Wooton 2
Russell Dauterman 2
Sam Alden 2
Sana Takeda 2
Sarah Glidden 2
Shaky Kane 2
Simon Hanselmann 2
Walden Wong 2
Whitney Cogar 2

The addition of the Solrad lists moves Carolyn Nowak way up on the lists, and adds a lot of artists not present on the previous list.

Solrad is brand new. Their first post was on January 1. Tom Spurgeon's sudden, unexpected death has ended his site, The Comics Reporter. I don't think Solrad will replace it--their focus is a lot more art comics, whereas Tom was kind of an open filter.  But art comics are my interest, so I am looking forward to what they publish. If they display a weakness in their first week of existence, it's that their 5 best-of lists were produced by four white guys and one woman (who I think is of Korean ancestry--at least Jooha seems to be a Korean name). Dudes--this is 2020!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the coverage Robert.

    With regards to your comment about the diversity of the offerings at the site - we hear that and it's something we're working on. In regards to dollars paid to contributors, women and nonbinary/trans writers will get paid >75% of the total dollars we spend on publishing this month. The site was initially envisioned as just as collaborative website between those 4 white men, and the scope has changed dramatically since then.

    Appreciate the feedback!

    ReplyDelete