2016 Comics In Review - Part 5

The final part. One thing I'm finding a struggle this year is how to define some of these books. Is that Mark Waid/Barry Kitson Avengers thing a mini-series? What should I consider Henchgirl? If Darkwing Duck never comes back, should I think of that as a mini-series, or just a swiftly dying ongoing, like you'd get from Marvel?

Favorite Ongoing Series (minimum 6 issues purchased this year):
1. Uneatable Squirrel Girl
2. Patsy Walker aka Hellcat
3. Henchgirl

I didn't expect it to end up like that. There were enough issues of Squirrel Girl I was unsure of I thought Hellcat would win, but the current Black Cat arc reversed that. There weren't many books in consideration this year. I dropped Black Widow. Deadpool and Ms. Marvel were both extremely up and down. Which left Darkwing Duck, which I wouldn't put on the level of the books I did pick.

Favorite Mini-Series:
1. Wynonna Earp
2. Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love

This was a generally unsatisfying year for mini-series. There was nothing that really knocked my socks off. But Wynonna Earp was solidly readable every month, and I still have to see if Deadman is going to stick the landing or not.

Favorite One-Shot:
1. Deadpool: Last Days of Magic
2. Locke & Key: Small World
3. Suicide Squad: War Crimes

This was a solid category. I didn't even put that Blue Beetle Rebirth issue in there. Locke & Key came in ahead of Suicide Squad because I felt like the art and writing worked together better. I liked the story in War Crimes better, but the art held it back.

Favorite Trade Paperback/Graphic Novel (anything I bought in 2016 is fair game, regardless of publication date):
1. Tony Cliff's Delilah Dirk: the King's Shilling
2. Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's Street Angel
3. Paul Grist's Jack Staff: Everything Used to be Black and White
4. Norm Breyfogle's and mostly Alan Grant's Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Volume 1

It was pretty close between #3 and 4. I like Breyfogle's art better, but the quality of the stories he illustrated were a lot more variable than the ones Grist wrote and illustrated. Although those Batman stories are interesting in contrast to his portrayal in more recent years.

Favorite Writers:
1. John Ostrander
2. Paul Grist

I think Ostrander wins by default any year I buy something he wrote. May have that written into the blog constitution. Or would that be the fundamental lows of this blogiverse? Gerard Way and Jonathan Rivera are a strong candidate for next year if Cave Carson holds up.

Favorite Artists (minimum 110 pages):
1. Chris Samnee
2. Brittney L. Williams
3. Mike Hawthorne

Honorable mentions: Takeshi Miyazawa, Michael Avon Oeming, Reilly Brown, Shawn Crystal

That top 3 was pretty tough. Didn't fit James Silvani or Erica Henderson in there. But even if I found Black Widow ultimately disappointing, it wasn't the fault of the art.

Also, I recognize it isn't fair to put a minimum page limit on the artists to qualify, when no similar requirement exists for the writers. But then, I don't include artists that might make it based on back issues or trades like I do with writers. So the artists that are in play get a much smaller field of competition. Honestly, these categories are getting to be a real mess. I definitely need to keep better trac of what back issues I buy in the coming year, so can I factor those into things somehow.