Image Forum Awards 2014!

[TotalSnorefest]

Hey everyone, welcome to the first (potentially annual?) Image Forum Awards 2014! (Name pending until someone comes up with a better one.)
A little while ago in the weekly Image thread the idea came up to do a sort of informal 'awards of the year' thread too. I mean, everyone loves end-of-year lists and we've got a cool little community going here right? So, the idea is simple: looking back on the comics YOU read this past year, which stood out as your highlights (or lowlights)? Unfortunately we can't really do a simple poll, since those can only contain like 15~ish options and Image sometimes publishes more than 15 comics in just a single week. However, it's not like we're something official like the Eisners anyway so we're free to keep it a lot more informal.

If you would like to hand out some awards of yourself, please do! It can be a simple list or include motivations; do what you feel like.
Some vanilla suggestions for categories: best ongoing series, best mini-series, best series that started in 2014, favourite artist this year, favourite writer this year, best covers, best single issue, biggest "oh sh#@! moment", most promising announced comic, best space western of the year, comic everyone should be reading but somehow doesn't (this will also be known as the 'A Voice In The Dark-award' ), etc.
Feel free to add any of your own though! If you have a 'most dissapointing' moment, tell us! Maybe you want to present the '2014 award for best reason to stop reading Marvel/DC'? Heck, talk about non-Image books if you want! 2014 Was a great year for indie comics so why confine the love? The point is fun!
So let's chat, if you ran a comics award show, who would present the awards? What snacks would be served? Who would be denied entry at the door? Are there musical guests performing? And most importantly: who would receive the awards?!

[InformationGeek]

Well, if you want a run down for me based on everything I've read (and I've read a lot), using those categories. Here's how it would look for me:

Best Ongoing Series: Lazarus (my favorite Image comic of the year in general)
Best Mini-Series: The Kitchen (yes it's Vertigo and yes there's only two issues, but damn it, it's the best!)
Best New Series: Southern Bastards
Favorite Writer: Tim Seeley for so many books, including Revival
Favorite Artist: Matthew Roberts for Manifest Destiny
Favorite Character: Forever from Lazarus
Best Cover: Manifest Destiny #3
Best Single Issue: The Crossover between Chew & Revival
Comic Everyone Should Be Reading: Manifest Destiny
Biggest Surprise: Outcast


But you know me, I read a lot of bad things as well and I'm not afraid to hold back, so let's reverse everything. Here's the worst for me:

Worst Ongoing: Drumhellar (It's ended, but man was that bad. Worst Indie book of the year)
Worst Mini-Series: Pop (Again, it's not Image, but wow. Talk about not living up to the potential it had)
Worst New Series: Intersect
Worst Writer: Matt Fraction
Worst Artist: Tie! Ray Fawkes for Intersect & Jorge Cassata for Goners
Least Liked Character: Laura from The Wicked + The Divine
Worst Cover: Any of the covers for The Wicked + The Divine and variants that McKelvie did (boring, bland, and generic come to mind)
Worst Single Issue: Drumhellar #6
Comic that Everyone Loves but I'm Indifferent To: Tie! Deadly Class & Saga (neither are bad, but they don't do a single thing for me)
Biggest Disappointment: Tie! Wayward & Sovereign


That should sum everything up for me. Now feel free to tell me why I'm so wrong and I'm a hack or troll writer.

[Agent John Bishop]

Firstly, can I just say, what a great idea for a thread. I am really addicted to end of the year lists, but I often find myself skimming them hoping to see my favorite titles and being sometimes disappointed when they don't show up. We comic readers are after all an opinionated lot. I am going to write up my favorites (plus a few least favorites and oddities) but I just wanted to note that I read things in trades, so I am a little behind even on this year's titles.

Best Ongoing Comic: I would have to say East of West: This is a really tough category and I think I would probably say Prophet, but I am about a year behind schedule because the trades have been released so rarely. For me EOW is a comic that encompasses many of my favorite things about the art form. It's large and imaginative, it takes advantage of the sial form, and it's visually stunning. Hickman is a favorite of mine (he got me back into comics a couple of years ago through FF and EOW. This year was specifically amazing for East of West as the set-up wrapped, and the real plot pieces got moving. I'd like to briefly mention some other great ongoing since I noticed most year in review lists only talk about new stuff. So here's stuff that's Still Great: Lazarus, Prophet, Avengers/New Avengers, and Zero

Worst In 2014 Comics: The worst anything is a tough category to write about because frankly, who reads enough of something they dislike to form a strong opinion of it? There are definitely comics/authors I am not a fan of, but honestly, no one really wants to hear about that anyway. I don't like Rick Remender or Matt fraction and I don't love Saga or Trillium, but frankly I wouldn't even bother to mention those unless people were so happy with them which really just puts me in the position of being a jerk. Instead I would like to note an author who writes one of my favorite books who I can't stand. Mr. Ales Kot who writes the brilliant Zero has been someone I have struggled to understand for a while now. His championing of liberal causes, sexual psychology, and condescending intellectualism has lead me to criticize him online before and this year he personally found me on a couple of comics sites and responded in a manner that I found upsetting. At one point I actually apologized for being critical about him which he responded to by lecturing me on my social skills. I am just a comics fan, and my opinion means very little, but it's hard for me to love the work of a person who I dislike as a human being. I've been outspoken about this for a while and I think I should just be at peace with disliking him, so I guess that's my vote for worst of the year. But seriously, all emotion aside, read Zero; it's great (and don't go to Kot's tumblr if you are not cool with porn).

Most Unexpected Comics Discovery: The author Jason Shiga was someone I heard about through a podcast interview with Brian Michael Bendis. Check out his stuff here. Mr. Shiga loves puzzles and has taken comics as his means of getting puzzles onto paper and it is incredible to see. Available in full on his site is a comic in which a man trapped inside of a phone booth must figure a way out using only the contents of his pocket. A book he published called Meanwhile allows a multiple choice story to be told with over 1500 options (time travel, ice cream, and world extinction are involved) using an ingenious system of colored tabs and lines. But since this is about this year, I must recommend his comic Demon. He is releasing it a page a day on his website and there is about four issues worth up now and is a great way to spend an afternoon. The plot is a puzzle of sorts as well, but is very rewarding as the pieces fall into place. For fear of spoiling let me just say it starts with a man trying to kill himself and failing with increasingly mysterious results. The cartooning is oddly effective dramatically despite being something like simplified Brian Lee O'malley. Highly, highly recommended.

Best Artist: This is a really tough one. Runners up would include Simon Roy, Nick Dragotta, Jerom Opena, and Wes Craig (seriously, I am not a fan of Craig's comic, but the art alone made me buy the first volume). The winner for me though is Declan Shalvey. The man is an incredibly evocative penciller with James Harren's talent for exaggeration, Mignola's design sense, Jim Lee's talent for drawing action scenes, and a healthy dose of personal style that makes it look unique. Moon Knight brought him to my attention, but I cannot wait for Injections from Image next year.

Best Trend in Comics: This is where I think Image really shined this year. They launched more sci-fi and fantasy books than I could possibly have hoped for and while I have not tried all of them or found a ton I love, they have me excited to be a comics reader. So I would say the comics trend I liked best was genre experimentation. Image is publishing horror, sci-fi, and superhero books but they are letting authors take hugely inventive approaches to those books. For example Trees is an alien invasion book, but instead of limiting it to a set of invasion tropes, Image allowed Warren Ellis to do a bizarre socio-political drama in the shadow of alien monoliths. Further, from the huge volume of stuff that Image is putting out there, it seems like every sort of comics fan benefits.

One Thing I Was Most Disappointed I Didn't See in 2014: Sorry to be negative but I was hoping for better comics journalism. I love comics, I love reading about comics and I love reading criticism of comics. However whereas there is great material available when it comes to Books, Movies and TV, comics writing continues to disappoint me. Most sites will, for example, rate no comic negatively and are enthusiastic about everything. That attitude is good, but I like writers who are critical enough to have a personal voice I can learn from. As it appears now most comic sites seem to be written by fans and not critics. This is likely part of comics being a young medium, but I was hoping for more. Another issue I have is how often books are championed as political or social causes without the work itself being considered very critically. I sound fairly crotchety here so this is likely a pet peeve, but here's to hoping that in 2015, comic sites get really great!

[banky]

sticking to just Image books:

Best Ongoing Series: Lazarus (it's been consistently good from the start and the latest arc is the most interesting so far)
Best Mini-Series: Supreme Blue Rose (dazzling visuals and a story that either confounds or fascinates)
Best Under-rated Series: Shutter (a retro-look adventure that's both unpretentious and filled with pop-culture references - that's rare)
Best New Series: The Fade Out (a slow burn but the elements are in place to see this boil over)
Favorite Writer: Ed Brubaker (Fatale--> Velvet--> The Fade Out for the win)
Favorite Artist: Tula Lotay for Supreme Blue Rose
Favorite Character: Forever from Lazarus
Best Cover: Five Ghosts #10
Best Single Issue: The Fade Out #1 magazine edition
Comic Everyone Should Be Reading: Stray Bullets
Biggest Surprise: Wytches actually delivers on the hype.


Most Over-rated title (aka the Saga Award): The Wicked + Divine (pretentious, self-important drivel that has yet to deliver anything more than colorful visuals)
Worst Writer: Matt Fraction (he may soon own this award)
Worst Artist: Wes Craig for Deadly Class (sometimes utterly painful to get thru)
Least Liked Character: Laura from The Wicked + The Divine
Worst Cover: Southern Bastards #1
Worst Single Issue: Pretty Deadly #5
Comic that Everyone Loves but I'm Indifferent To: Tie! Saga and the Wicked + Divine
Biggest Disappointments: the decline in quality (after the vol.1 tpbs) from Deadly Class & Black Science

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Best Ongoing Series: Sex Criminals. Funny, frank and inventive with a killer letter column to boot, it's simply the series I most look forward to reading.

Best Mini-Series: Pass. I think I've only read Supreme: Blue Rose, which I liked but it can't be "best" if it has no competition.

Best New Series: Shutter. Tough one but for sheer imagination and sense of fun, it's a tough comic to beat.

Favorite Writer: Ed Brubaker. For sheer quantity AND consistency, Bru was the man this year.

Favorite Artist: Elizabeth Breitweiser. A massive cheat, I know, but every Image comic I read has great art so I've decided to go for a colourist that grabs my attention like no other colourist has before. What she adds to the look of Brubaker's current books can not be overstated at all.

Favorite Character: Forever Carlyle. Rucka has always been brilliant with strong female characters but he's never written one quite like this, whose incredible mix of toughness, tenderness and innocence makes her the character that I've grown most attached to this year. Plus she grows on you the more you read about her.

Best Cover: Velvet #4. Velvet consistently has the best covers around but this one was the best.

Best Single Issue: Fatale #23. Issue 24 wrapped up the series brilliantly but the issue before was such a trippy surprise for such a noirish series, it really drove home just how great and perhaps underrated this particular Brubaker/ Phillips series was.

Comic Everyone Should Be Reading (ie. most overlooked series): Shutter. It's awesome from top to bottom but it seems like it gets lost in the shuffle.

Biggest Surprise: Deadly Class. If you told me how good this series was going to get after I had read the first two issues for the first time, I would never have believed you.




Worst Ongoing: Wicked + Divine Get ready to see this a lot in this category. Pretentious, irritatingly "hip" with slappable characters, not even the beautiful art could save this one.

Worst Mini: Pass.

Worst Writer: Well, it has to be Kieron Gillen of the Image writers I read this year. He's not a bad writer by any means but he's too-cool-for-school style really rubs me the wrong way.

Worst artist: Christian Ward. His style really isn't to my taste. I probably would have checked out ODY-C otherwise as I really like Fraction's creator owned stuff.

Least Liked Character: Pick a Wicked + Divine character, any Wicked and Divine character.

Worst Cover: Any issue of Southern Bastards. These covers perfectly represent the tone of the series but they're ugly as sin and would never make you want to pick up this rather excellent series if you just saw it on the rack without knowing anything else about it.

Worst Single Issue: Probably Wicked + Divine #3. Not because it was worse than the rest but that was the issue that solidified how much I dislike this series.

Comic that Everyone Loves but I'm Indifferent To: Say it with me... Wicked + Divine.

Biggest Disappointment: Look, this is getting redundant but the basic premise of Wicked + Divine is really interesting. And it has lovely McKelvie art and everything!

[DebkoX]

Sex Criminals wins my best comic.

[cc008]

Sticking with strictly Image stuff...

Best Ongoing Series - Lazarus. The world-building, history, and characters in this book are so carefully constructed and fit perfectly together. It feels like we're just scratching the surface of what's going to happen in this book.

Runner up - Southern Bastards. There's nothing else like this book in comics.

Most Underrated Series - The Mercenary Sea. I view it as Uncharted meets Firefly. The use of silhouettes in the art is pretty awesome too.

Best New Comic - LOW. This is a tough one because the majority of my pull list at Image contains books that debuted this year. Going with LOW because right from the beginning, I've been completely engaged in the world and what's happening in it.

Best Writer - Rick Remender. How he goes from writing a book like Deadly Class to writing something like LOW or Black Science is beyond me. On top of his Marvel/superhero work.

Runner Up - Greg Rucka. Again, the world building in Lazarus is incredible.

Best Artist - Greg Tocchini (LOW). His style fits perfectly for the book. The few pages where we get to see the sea life in open water are pretty unbelievable.

Runner Up - Nic Klein. Drifter is extremely easy on the eyes.

Best Colorist - Jordie Bellaire. Best in the bizz.

Best Single Issue -Southern Bastards #4. By Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

Best Cover - Deadly Class #8 by Wes Craig



Best Character - Earl Tubb, Southern Bastards. I came for the ribs. RIP.

Book I Still Need to Try Out - Manifest Destiny

Most Anticipated Books of 2015 (That are announced as of today):
1) Invisible Republic
2) Descender
3) Tokyo Ghost

[wwise03]

Best Ongoing Series This is a really tough one. My favorite Image series changes weekly. Just to give the tie to an underdog, I'll vote for The Mercenary Sea. This is a fun high-seas, Indiana Jones-style adventure with beautiful art. It is far superior to Shutter, which is a book a lot of people like for their Indiana Jones-style adventure series. And it's one of the few $2.99 books out there. I urge everyone to check it out. Lazarus, East of West, and Sex Criminals were all fantastic this year too.

Best Writer Ed Brubaker. He's just the best. I am disappointed that his books are frequently delayed though.

Worst Writer Kieron Gillen. Wicked and the Divine is just awful. He should be embarrassed.

Best Artist Elizabeth Breitweiser. Colorists rarely get any credit, but Bettie's work is fantastic. Tula Lotay is also fantastic. She is the only reason I attempt to read Supreme, which I hate.

Favorite Character Forever Carlyle. She is just awesome in every sense!

Comics that everyone love but I'm indifferent to Shutter and The Wicked and the Divine. I don't get the love for Shutter at all. It's a $3.50 book that gives like 19 or 20 pages of actual story and then a bunch of pages of little crappy cartoons in the back. I have no idea what the central plot of the story is. It appears the series just keeps adding brothers and sisters who want to kill the protagonist for some reason. I just don't get it. As for the Wicked and the Divine, does anyone actually like it? If so, why?

Biggest Disappointment I agree that the decline in quality of Black Science and Deadly Class was disappointing. The first arcs of those books were fantastic. I don't know what happened, but they just aren't that good anymore. I think Remender has spread himself too thin. Low is still ok (it's the only Remender book I still read). We will see about Tokyo Ghosts.

[Agent John Bishop]

Comics that everyone love but I'm indifferent to Shutter and The Wicked and the Divine. I don't get the love for Shutter at all. It's a $3.50 book that gives like 19 or 20 pages of actual story and then a bunch of pages of little crappy cartoons in the back. I have no idea what the central plot of the story is. It appears the series just keeps adding brothers and sisters who want to kill the protagonist for some reason. I just don't get it. As for the Wicked and the Divine, does anyone actually like it? If so, why?
.

While I admittedly only read the first issue of Shutter, this was exactly my read on it. I think Joe Keatinge is a really strongly mediocre author, but people seem to have warmed to this comic due to its really nice art.

[El Sombrero]

Best Comic: Saga

Saga remains the class of the industry in every respect. Writing, art, coloring, lettering, characters, plot, dialogue, even aspects outside the main story like the letters page and covers. Saga is one of the closest things I have seen to a truly flawless comic. I'm not even really going to bother mentioning specific details I like about this book, because as said above, I love everything about it. With two years of issues in the bank, the series continues to grow emotionally and in depth of continuity and feels like it could easily go 100+ issues or launch a mutiny of spinoffs. We are lucky to be experiencing this comic as it releases. I don't know ultimately what Saga will achieve, but I think the franchise potential here dwarfs the Walking Dead.

Best Writer: Brian K. Vaughn (Saga)

I think one of the more underappreciated aspects of the writing in Saga is how Vaughn has really changed the nature of the stories he's telling, but the stories remain so satisfying, entertaining, and well-done. Saga started off as more of an action-adventure book with romance elements, but I think that order has flipped with the book being mainly about relationships and family with a little bit of action thrown in. Plenty of the scenes in Saga are very mundane (playing board games, going to dancing lessons) but they speak volumes about the characters and help the readers feel true emotion. Vaughn is the ultimate "less is more" writer in this book; I think Saga probably has the least amount of text of all the books I have in my list, but it's the best written. Saga has never stopped introducing new characters and they're all immediately interesting and likable. Vaughn is absolutely a master of his craft.

Best Artist: Wes Craig (Deadly Class)

Huge honorable mention to Fiona Staples here, who had pretty much become the default "Best Artist" winner over the past couple years, but Craig really raised his game to incredible levels on this series and blew me away with phenomenal storytelling. Craig fundamentally adjusted his style over the course of this series to suit whatever special scene he was trying to portray, diverse scenes such as psychedelic drug trips, thrilling motorcycle chases, or the horrors of child labor abuse. His panel design and progression was often unbelievably good in originality and effectiveness of telling the story. I don't think anyone blended style and substance as well as Wes Craig this year.

Best Character: Earl Tubb (Southern Bastards)

Aaron did a great job portraying Tubb as both a force of nature and a source of mystery in this comic. Tubb took Craw County by storm, becoming the prototypical "big man with a stick" and the sheriff ready to clean up the mess. He was a true role model in the way he never compromised his morals and code of values despite how corrupt Craw County was and how futile his mission seemed. He ultimately died for his cause and left the series a legendary failed martyr. In terms of intrigue, the reader was kept guessing at who Tubb was speaking to, just what was driving him on his mission, and the nature of his mystical tree branch powers and family line. Latour deserves plenty of credit for giving readers an Earl that was the visual metaphor of a tree trunk: old, weathered, and unforgiving. We saw Earl's buried sadness and anger with every line on his face.

Biggest Surprise: Ending of Chew #45

(note: significant spoilers follow)

If you would have asked me which Chew character would last the test of time, no question I would say Poyo. I absolutely expected Poyo to outlive Tony and the rest of the cast. That was kind of the whole point of the character: he was unstoppable and truly larger than life. Layman set up Chew 44 to tease readers into expecting any one of a whole group of characters was done for, only to completely pull out the rug and off Poyo, a character who had nothing to do with the Collector incident, a death that was not remotely foreshadowed. This was a crushing blow for readers as Poyo was the demented fan-favorite heart of the series, and changes everything as we have an endless list of questions about John Colby now. Chew has delivered a bunch of surprises but this hit like a massive, unforgettable blow and left me both in denial and true anger.

And for the other side of the spectrum...

Worst Comic: Intersect

There is art that forces the reader to put in a little extra effort to follow along (I would put ODY-C in that category), and then there is stuff that's just completely inpenetrable. Intersect fundamentally fails as a comic book. Fawkes' writing jumps from idea to idea so rapidly that it feels more like unfinished and thrown-together phrases from a scrapbook than actual writing. The art is attractive as individual panels but again, unintelligible as a complete work. This comic feels like it was once an admirable project that took things way too far off the deep end and would need extensive editing to even be readable.

Worst Writer: Kieron Gillen (The Wicked and The Divine)

I was ready to condemn "WicDiv" as a whole, but have to refrain from that as McKelvie and Wilson's artwork is excellent and nearly makes the book worth buying. But Gillen's writing is so intolerable that this title runs away as the most irritating and obnoxious comic of the year. The book does a poor job at really exploring themes of celebrity in any meaningful or thought-provoking way, aside from Luci the gods are quite dull or stupid, the lead character Laura comes off as a sheepish idiot, the plot element of a group of previous gods and reincarnation feels too intricate to really be worth the effort, and that doesn't even touch on the dialogue. Gillen's words have taken "too cool for school" to a scary level, making the reader want to punch someone in the face after every dreadful line or idea. Even if you account for a lot of this as satire, the writing is trying WAY WAY too hard here. Ideas like fans orgasming in tandem at a concert are embarrassingly absurd.

Worst Artist: Jorge Corona (Goners)

Goners was a book that had flaws in virtually every respect, but I do think the art was probably its paramount drawback. Characters and facial expressions looked crude, unnatural, and immature throughout, and the tone of the artwork was often completely off with the script. Dramatic scenes looked ridiculous and the exaggerated nature of the art fought with the writing all throughout. Bad art that was below typical Image standards.

Biggest Disappointment: Rasputin

Riley Rossmo's artwork in this book is fantastic, and the story has introduced a handful of visually fascinating characters, but the writing is completely dropping the ball. Rasputin takes decompressed storytelling to troubling depths, as each issue features barely three scenes (where not much happens), and apparently the entire first arc is going to show the readers one-by-one how Rasputin came in contact with the people who killed him at dinner. The book succeeds at atmosphere but character work and plot is virtually nonexistent. This project would honestly probably be more enjoyable if there were no words whatsoever and it was released strictly as an art book, because to act like there is a story here so far is insulting.

Most Overrated: Nailbiter

There is a troubling trend at Image lately to describe books as "this movie meets this TV show" and so on. Image prides itself on its originality, so to act like the creative pitch of your project is solely influenced by existing projects doesn't make any sense and runs contradictory to the point of telling a creator-owned story. Now, lots of books surpass this bad marketing and deliver an original and satisfying story. Nailbiter, I think does not. The level to which this book rips off of Silence of the Lambs is alarming. Warren is overly influenced by Hannibal Lecter in nearly every way and there are multiple scenes throughout the book that feel like direct "adaptations" (ripoffs) of scenes in SOTL, which is even compounded when the characters in the story reference the film! It's pretty much impossible to imagine this book existing without SOTL. I don't think this book is in any way original enough to justify its praise, and even if you disregard the SOTL influence, the book gets silly and too gimmick-oriented with its examination of a town full of serial killers, and none of the police characters are interesting at all.

[klynn]

Image is fast becoming my favorite publisher. Here are my top picks for 2014

Best Ongoing Series: Lazarus (just love this book-gets better every arc)

Best Mini-Series/Best Under-rated Series/Best New Series/Comic Everyone Should be Reading: Death Vigil (my most exciting find--it's been sadly under promoted by Top Cow/Image)

Favorite Writer/Favorite Artist/Biggest Surprise: Stjepan Sejic (breakout talent for me this year-fantastic artist and wonderful writer--I think 2015 will be a big year for him, especially with him joining Rat Queens)

Favorite Character: Forever Carlyle

Best Cover/Best Single Issue: Lazarus #12/13 (sorry, I'm a sucker for romance)

Comic that Everyone Loves but I'm Indifferent To: Sex Criminals

Biggest Disappointments: C.O.W.L. (loved the concept & setting but characters left me cold)

[Tayne Japal]

Best Ongoing Series: Lazarus – A lot of thought has gone into building this world and it clearly shows in the pages. The current arc is probably the best I’ve read all year. Runner-up: East of West

Best Mini-Series: Death Vigil – Still ongoing, but it beats out the other minis I read this year, Revenge, Trees, and Wildfire.

Best New Series: Wicked + Divine – It’s probably because I’m oblivious to the way that many normal people today worship celebrities is why I look forward to reading this book with each new issue. I find the story interesting and the art is great. Runner-up: Low

Favorite Writer: Ed Brubaker – A great series in Fatale ending with The Fade Out taking its place and Velvet keeping up the suspense. Runner-up: Rick Remender

Favorite Penciller: Nick Dragotta – The art of East of West just draws me into its world. Runner-up: Stjepan Sejic, Roc Upchurch

Favorite Colorist: Frank Martin Jr. on East of West – see above – Runner-up: Roc Upchurch on Rat Queens

Favorite Character: Betty from Rat Queens. Runner-up: Forever Carlyle from Lazarus

Best Cover: Elephantmen! #58 Runner Up: Sheltered #7





Biggest Disappointment: Mind the Gap and Rocket Girl delayed/canceled/whatever

Best Comic No One Is Reading: Elephantmen! 60 issues in may be intimidating for some to hop in, but for those that invest in the back issues, it’s a great read with an awesome world dealing with the after effects of man’s scientific achievements. Runner-up: Death Vigil and Revival (seems to be losing steam, but I think it’s still solid).

[Anduinel]

Best Ongoing Series: Lazarus. After reading the timeline in the back of the hardcover trade, I've decided it's my favorite horror series ever.
Best Mini-Series: Death Vigil. Funny with great art.
Best New Series: The Autumnlands: Tooth and Claw. I won't say I couldn't possibly like this series more, but only because I have no trouble believing Busiek will raise the bar as things go on.
Favorite Writer: Richard Starkings on Elephantmen.
Favorite Artist: Ben Dewey on Tooth and Claw.
Favorite Character: Merriweather Lewis from Manifest Destiny.
Best Cover: Lazarus #12.
Best Single Issue: Lazarus #8.
Best Comic No One Is Reading: Elephantmen. An exploration of the after-effects of war and the definition of humanity with a doe-eyed love letter to Phillip K Dick scribbled on the back. It does meander at times, but usually in the interest of exploring an interesting idea.

Worst Ongoing: Drumhellar. A lot of times I walk away from a book I don't like with the knowledge that it's not so much a bad book as I'm not the intended audience. But this series was so incomprehensible that I couldn't even venture a guess as to who the intended audience was supposed to be.
Worst Mini-Series: N/A
Worst New Series: C.O.W.L. It's an interesting premise, but I read to the end of the first volume and couldn't find myself giving a damn about any of the characters.
Worst Writer: Yeah, not going there.
Worst Artist: Ditto.
Worst Cover: The Southern Bastards covers are uniformly unappealing. Maybe that's on purpose, but still...
Worst Single Issue: Shutter #1. Got it for free, could stand to have the time spent reading it back.
Comic that Everyone Loves but I'm Indifferent To: Copperhead. I do not understand the enthusiasm for this book at all. I've seen better world building in the 80's cartoons its trying to ape, the sheriff is a generic Strong Female Character, and it's a mash of three genres, none of which it does particularly well. Certainly not the worst thing on the stands, but not Faeber at his best either and it's just so bland that I don't get the love.
Biggest Disappointment: That we don't have a second season of Storm Dogs yet.

[Greg]

I'm not going to do a Worst List.

Best Ongoing Series: Drumhellar
Best Mini-Series: Haven't read enough
Best New Series: Sadly haven't read much new series due to funds.
Favorite Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Favorite Artist: Riley Rossmo
Favorite Character: Drumhellar from Drumhellar
Best Cover: Elephantmen #58
Best Single Issue: Can't answer
Best Comic No One Is Reading: Elephantmen for SURE

[chaos X effect]

Best Ongoing Series: I still love Saga and I'm not sorry!
Best New Series: Outcast
Favorite Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Favorite Artist: Fiona Staples
Favorite Character: Lying Cat
Best Comic No One Is Reading: Are people reading Wytches? If not, then that!