Image Forum Awards 2015! - What were your favourites this year?

[TotalSnorefest]

Hey everyone, welcome to the second annual Image Forum Awards! (Name still pending until someone comes up with a better one.)

Last year we did this it was a pretty popular thread, and if the entertainment industry has taught us anything it's that nothing good can exist without an inevitable sequel. Since everyone and their uncles will be doing best-of-the-year lists, why not us as well?! It's super simple: let's discuss our favourite (or least favourite?) Image comics of the year!

Let's hear what awards y'all want to hand out, here's some vanilla category suggestions:
- Best series that debuted this year, best ongoing series and/or best single issue
- Favourite artist, writer, colourist, inker, letterer, etc.
- Best cover design
- Favourite new character or setting
- Most promising comic for next year
- Comic everyone should be reading but somehow isn't
- Comic moment that left you in need of a stiff drink (Don't drink kids)

If you don't want to make a list, or invent some categories of your own, that's absolutely fine too. You can go all-out with essay-sized motivations behind every choice, or just yell about the most dissapointing comic you read. Heck it could be about other publishers' indie comics if you want; the point is to have some fun (and pretend we're the Oscars)!

[Doughy Man!]

Sounds like fun, and since I've done awards elsewhere, I have them pretty much ready to go.

I’m not doing “Worst ofs”, as I have no interest in that (what? A comic fan who dislikes complaining… perish the thought! Lol). Instead I'm just going to celebrate what made my comics life a joy…


Best Ongoing Series: Velvet by Bubaker, Epting and Breitweiser
While it doesn't publish regularly, when it does come out there's not an Image comic I enjoy more. The artistic synergy on this spy story is a wonder to behold. It's slick, sexy and smart... a true masterpiece from 3 masters of their craft. Nominees: Trees, Lazarus, The Fade Out

Best Mini Series: Nameless by Morrison, Burnham & Fairbairn
Sick, twisted existential horror edges out Plutona for the award

Best New Series: Invisible Republic by Hardman, Bechko & Boyd
This smart, geopolitical drama takes the award over Injection and Monstress

Best Single Issue: The Wicked + The Divine #13 from Gillen and Lotay

Best Writer: Ed Brubaker for Velvet and The Fade Out
Put Ed's name right up there with the best Noir and Espionage masters. The pacing, structure, characterization, dialog, setting and tone of his twin masterpieces is flawless. I don't know that I've ever enjoyed Brubaker's work more. Nominees: Greg Rucka and Warren Ellis

Best Artist: Steve Epting for Velvet
Steve is a master of noir expressionistic lighting techniques. His action sequences are cinematic in scale. He stages chases that are intense and breathtaking. For example: when we see Velvet exit the window of a moving train, the angles Epting employed gave a real sense of danger. And when her pursuers dog her every step, the tension and exhaustion in her was palpable. But Steve's also aces with quiet, conversational scenes well. Nominees: Emma Rios, Jason Howard, Cliff Chiang, Declan Shalvey

Best Colorist: Matthew Wilson for The Wicked + The Divine and Paper Girls
In 2015 Wilson reunited with his Wonder Woman cohort, Cliff Chiang on Paper Girls. And in Gillen's experimental WicDiv #8 he was front and center as a storytelling partner - brilliantly capturing the vibrancy and personality of the music in that issue. Nominees: Breitweiser, Bellaire and Englert

Best Cover Artist: Jenny Frison for Revival… and she did nice work on Red Sonja and others outside of Image.


Best Cover: Revival #32 by Jenny Frison. Nominees: Nameless #1 and McKelvie’s Phonogram Immaterial Girl covers

Best Set and Costume Design: Chris Burnham for Nameless
What a nightmarish world Burnham brought to the page. The structures inspire a terrible awe, and I like the space suits, with sigils painted in the face plates. Nominees: Nick Dragotta (East of West) Jamie McKelvie (Wicked + The Divine)

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Best Splash Page: Japan's new Gods, Wayward #10 by Jim Zub and Steve Cummings
This was the final page of the end of the second arc. And it was a fist pumping, let out a "Hell yeah!" moment.

Best Female Lead Character: Velvet Templeton (Velvet) with a nod to Forever Carlyle (Lazarus)

Best Male Lead Character: Charlie Parish (The Fade Out)

Best Supporting Character, Female: Ayane (Wayward)

Best Supporting Character, Male: Inanna (Wicked + The Divine)

Best Villain: Ananke (The Wicked + The Divine)

Best Ensemble Cast: East of West by Johnathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta.

Best Couple: Alex and Ada (Alex + Ada)

Best Siblings: Dana and Em Cypress (Revival)

Best Youth/Child: Babylon (East of West)

Best Performance by an Animal: Lying Cat (Saga)

[Ragdoll]

I can't pick favorites. Shout outs to Nameless, Alex + Ada, and Saga at least. But I will say that Image was my favorite publisher this year. The Big 2 really turned me off with both of them putting their regular books on hold for stupid events (Convergence and the never ending Secret Wars).
Right now I'm Image > Marvel > DC

[wwise03]

Best Ongoing Series: Lazarus. This is such a tough category for me this year. My heart wanted to vote for Invincible, as that has been the best ongoing series for a decade. But Lazarus was so good this that I could not, in good conscience, give Invincible the award based on its lifetime achievement. Lazarus also beat out Velvet for me due to Velvet's inconsistent release schedule.

Best Mini Series: The Fade Out. I'm cheating a bit with this one as 12 issues can't really be considered a mini. But since I did not read any other minis this year, Fade Out gets the nod.

Best New Series: Descender. Another tough category. I wanted to give the award to Invisible Republic, but Descender just feels more epic in scope and has a unique art style that perfectly suits my taste. One thing hurting Invisible Republic slightly for me is that it scratches a similar itch as does Lazarus, just not quite as well as Lazarus. It's too soon to tell with Black Magick, Monstress, and Paper Girls.

Best Single Issue: I don't remember single issues very well, so this is a category I can't really comment much on. A number of The Fade Out's issues were very good. If I had to vote, I'd go with Monstress 1, though it was helped by basically being 3 comics books in 1.

Best Artist: I equate this category with "Best Art Style" because I am incapable of discerning good technical art from bad technical art. That said, I have to give this award to Dustin Nguyen for his work in Descender. It is imaginative and very unique. Epting was quite good on Velvet.

Best Colorist: Bettie Breitweiser should win this award every year.

Best Cover Artist:

Best Set and Costume Design: Nick Dragotta on East of West. Every building in this book just seems larger than life.

Best Female Lead Character: Forever Carlyle - She's the lead character in my best ongoing book.

Best Male Lead Character: Mark Grayson - he is the epitome of what a superhero should be.

Best Supporting Character: Allen the Alien from Invincible.

Best Ensemble Cast: The East of West case

Best Couple: Alex and Ada

[InformationGeek]

Here's it for me:

Best Series In General: Outcast

Best New Series: Descender

Best Graphic Novel: Any of the Sunstone volumes

Best Punch to the Gut Award: The finale to the Third Arc of Manifest Destiny

Best Ending to a Series or Arc: Wytches #6

Best and Most Surprising Death: Revival #32

Best Writer: Jeff Lemire

Best Artist: Stjepan Šejić for any number of titles he draws

Best Colorist: Owen Gieni for Manifest Destiny & Shutter

Best Cover Artist: Jenny Frison for Revival

MVP/Workhorse of the Year: Stjepan Šejić

Most Improved in Quality: They're Not Like Us

Best Surprise: Invisible Republic

Best Lead Character: Forever in Lazarus or Tony Chu in Chew

Best Villain: Coach Boss of Southern Bastards

Best Cast of Characters: Chew

Best Supporting Character: Maria or Willie from Deadly Class

Best Couple: Ally and Lisa from Sunstone

Where'd You Go? I Miss You So Award: Wytches

You Should Be Reading This Award: Birthright

Gone But Not Forgotten Award: Alex + Ada



Because I'm also negative...

Worst Series in General: Intersect

Worst New Series: Bloodstrike

Most Unintentional Funny Moment: Saga #31's ending

Worst Moment This Year: TIE! due to a Double Dose of Mindwiping caused by the Lead Characters in both Wayward and They're Not Like Us

Biggest Failed Landing for an Ending Award: Sheltered

Worst Writer: Rob Liefeld

Worst Artist: Ray Fawkes for Intersect

Worst Coloring: Matt Hollingsworth's work in Wytches

Worst Cast of Characters: Wayward

Worst Main Character: TIE! Rori Lane of Wayward and Marcus Lopez of Deadly Class

Improved, but Dropped In Quality Just as Quickly Award: Deadly Class

Female Shoved In a Fridge Award: Saga #29

Biggest Drop in Quality: Saga

Biggest Disappointment: 3-Way TIE! Saga, Sheltered, and Deadly Class

Oh... You're Back Award: Pretty Deadly

Do You Even Remember That? Award: Valhalla Mad

Gone But Forgotten Award: TIE! Satellite Sam and C.O.W.L.

Worst Schedule Release: The Dying and the Dead


Ask for specifics, but just a headsup. A bunch of these are joke awards, so don't take them too seriously.

[LobsterJohnson]

I only read Rumble (and the last issue of Jake Ellis) this year, so that tops everything for me! I'm only just starting to read more Image books, thanks to a few of the #1 for $1 books I read a few weeks ago.

[Joker]

All my awards go to Casanova: Acedia.

I liked Deadly Class, East of West, Outcast, Southern Bastards, and I'm sure more I'm forgetting, but Casanova was just perfect. My only complaint was we didn't get more this year. Should be back in the Spring, though.

[TotalSnorefest]

Ask for specifics, but just a headsup. A bunch of these are joke awards, so don't take them too seriously.

Not gonna lie, some of your negatives cracked me up. Just curious, what'd you hate about the art of Intersect again? Just the lack of clarity of what was going on? I remember thinking it was mostly the impenetrable dialogue & subsequently barely coherent story that let it down, but I remember thinking the art was (at least) impressive on a technical level.

[InformationGeek]

Not gonna lie, some of your negatives cracked me up. Just curious, what'd you hate about the art of Intersect again? Just the lack of clarity of what was going on? I remember thinking it was mostly the impenetrable dialogue & subsequently barely coherent story that let it down, but I remember thinking the art was (at least) impressive on a technical level.

Lack of clarity and flow in the art. Intersect was a pain to read because it was hard to follow and hard to tell what exactly you were looking at. The art detracted from the story, but from also the horror vibe the series did seem like it was trying to have as well. It's hard to be scared of things when I'm not sure what I'm suppose to be scared of.

Also, thanks! Some of those negative awards were purposely made for fun jokes.


Last, I'm putting my Top 30 Best Comics of the Year list together. The first part is finished, covering #30 to 21, and there's a few Image titles listed. It's here for those interested.

[Doughy Man!]

Best Colorist: Bettie Breitweiser should win this award every year.

Quote for truth.

She's the best in the biz IMHO, but I decided to spread the wealth and give it to someone else this year. I thought Matt did some out-of-this-world coloring on Wic/Div.

[SwampyCA]

Last, I'm putting my Top 30 Best Comics of the Year list together. The first part is finished, covering #30 to 21, and there's a few Image titles listed. It's here for those interested.

This is cool. I appreciate the thought you put into this.

I can't wait to see where Prez and Wayward wind up!! Haha, joking on the latter.

[InformationGeek]

This is cool. I appreciate the thought you put into this.

I can't wait to see where Prez and Wayward wind up!! Haha, joking on the latter.

Thanks. I really tried thinking about every single title I read this year and how they all stacked up for me. Ultimately, my Best of the Year list is based on what I enjoyed and got the most out of this year. What stories I got wrapped up in, what characters did I enjoy, the emotional and personal connection I got from it, and such.


Unfortunately, a lot of titles got snubbed or dropped because I couldn't squeeze them in, despite really enjoying them. As such, here's what just barely missed the cut:

Master Keaton, Harley Quinn, Rose Guns Days, Umineko, Invisible Republic, UQ Holder, Norgami, Martian Manhunter, Thor, All-New All Different Avengers, Twilight Children, Attack on Titan, Yowamushi Pedal, One Piece, We Are Robin, Monstress, Black Magick, East of West, American Vampire: Second Cycle, and more. Lot of good titles, it's just my 30 picks were much better to me.

[greenish lantern]

Best mini series: Nameless. Best writer: Grant Morrison. Best Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn. Best Artist: Epting.
Nameless, Velvet, Descender, Fade Out and Chew were the only Image comics that I've enjoyed this year.

[ben c]

i didn't read a lot of comics this year, but "fade out" was one of them it it was outstanding!!!

[TotalSnorefest]

Alright I've made my mind up too! Could add more later, but don't want to bore y'all.

Best new series: Island Magazine. So far I've only been "meh" on one story this magazine has had running, which is far above the batting average of the Vertigo anthologies or Dark Horse presents. With work from Emma Rios, Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, and my favourite series Multiple Warheads included it already had my attention, but it's people like Amy Clare whom I didn't know that really sell it for me. Plus Michael DeForge is up soon too!

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Best non-Image ongoing: Archie. Outside of Image, world have been converging, reassembling and relaunching, but nothing was more captivating than the #lipstickincident.

Best single issue: Rachel Rising #29. Yeah it's not Image, and technically it's not even from this year, but this was the best and got collected in 2015 so I'm counting it! Gorgeous cover aside, this can practically be read as a stand-alone moment of "character time." There's a super short segment where Rachel asks advice from a hardware store clerk, and if you care even remotely about the impact of historical racism this issue will cut deep. In a manner of a few panels it went from relatively cheerful, upbeat to ugly-sobbing-in-the-corner level sadness. Read this, even if you don't follow the series.

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Favourite setting: From Under Mountains. This fantasy series has me continually intrigued with its Middle-East inspired landscapes & architecture, unclear social structure, unexplained rituals and the promise of goblins.

Best level-up: ODY-C upgraded from 'merely' the most gorgeous sci-fi book on the stands, to a white-hot righteous fury with zero intentions of subtlety about its message. Since Fraction also began butchering 1001 Nights and Moby Dick alongside the Odyssey, and clearly stumbled onto a course of gender studies 101, this book has been firing on all cylinders.

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Sadly dissapointing: Harrow County (Dark Horse) didn't click with me. It looks phenomenal, but in a world where Rachel Rising, Revival, BPRD, Colder, Hellboy In Hell, and more great horrors exist, this just didn't cut it for me. Not awful but just didn't draw me in. I'm psyched for the creators that it's getting a TV adaptation though, I'll give that a shot for sure.

Most anticipated: Mirror. The upcoming Hwei Lim/Emma Rios book looks gorgeous. This was planned to be part of 8House; not sure what's happening there, but either way I'm stoked for this.