Did Any Comics Get Released in 2014?

After the break, check out the year in comics, courtesy of these guys.

They have a timer and top ten list. There are four of them. There is one Image comic. Get into it!

Comments

[Joe McCulloch]

***SPOILERS***

My list:

1. Arsène Schrauwen by Olivier Schrauwen
2. RAV 1st Collection by Mickey Zachilli
3. Palm Ash by Julia Gfrörer
4. Beautiful Darkness by Kerascoët & Fabien Vehlmann
5. Education by John Hankiewicz
6. Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano
7. Epoxy 5 by John Pham
8. Sally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary M. Talbot, Kate Charlesworth & Bryan Talbot
9. The Leaning Girl by François Schuiten, Benoît Peeters, Marie-Françoise Plissart & Martin Vaughn-James
10. Zero #9 by Ales Kot, Tonči Zonjić, Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles & Tom Muller

[ChrisV]

This was the Top Ten list(s) I was most looking forward to, and it didn’t disappoint. Great choices, and often unpredictable.

I was relieved to see that Joe still likes Beautiful Darkness after seeming to turn on it on Twitter a few days ago. That I actually experienced mild anxiety about this speaks to my complete lack of a life.

I’ve been meaning to read Nijigahara Holograph since my days hanging around the scanlation community, when it was the talk of the town, and its inclusion here has nudged me a little closer, but something about the art/worldview always turned me off, and the fact that I’ve intensely disliked everything since by Asano (I consider Iou Kuroda’s displacement as alt-manga’s It Boy by Asano one of the more disappointing developments of the 21st century in comics, but that’s Kuroda’s own fault), would probably taint any enjoyment I might be able to wring from the thing.

So I guess Mould Map 3 joins Kramers 4 and Non 5 in the category of Era-Defining 21st Century Anthologies that are Quickly Impossible to Get. Comics!

The only thing I missed/wondered about (inspired by the Cannon repartee at the end) : were there any reprints/retrospective collections of older work the Factual Opinion crew enjoyed this year? (excluding belated translations like the Asano and the Schuiten/Peeters)?

[Joe McCulloch]

Oh, I do that with every comic I like, just not always out loud... turning them around and around, poking at them - what I was trying to get at was that Beautiful Darkness has a lot of aspects that would (and have) seem(ed) corny and awful in other hands, but it still works. I also liked how my entire timeline took "Neil Gaiman" as a full-blown negative - probably because I reduced him down to his schtickiest elements. But some of those early Dave McKean collabs hold up!

I share your reservations about Asano... felt very alone in my indifference to Solanin. But Nijigahara Holograph is legit, I cannot deny. I was introduced to that the same way as you, during that big wave of seinen scans around '07 or so... weird how that upkick, of all things, wound up being a focusing event. Nasu, man... mark my words, once Kuroda's Appleseed comic gets out there, he's totally gonna be up for reevaluation.

I don't own a copy of Non 5 either.

[Sean Witzke]

U guys forgot Nonplayer

[Joe McCulloch]

The funniest part of the Nonplayer #2 announcement is that it's not actually out for another 17 weeks.

[Jeet Heer]

Can Chris, Tucker & Matt also list off their top 10s here in the comment section. I mean, I listened to the podcast and all, but it's good to have the lists here as a reference point. Definitely some comics I will check out.

[Chris Mautner]

Sure, here you go:

10. The Hospital Suite by John Porcellino
9. Safari Honeymoon by Jesse Jacobs
8. Copra by Michel Fiffe
7. Impressions by Aidan Koch
6. How to be Happy by Eleanor Davis
5. Epoxy #5 by John Pham
4. Education by John Hankiewicz
3. Gast by Carol Swain
2. Arsene Schrawen by Oliver Schrawen
1. Recidivist IV by Zak Sally

[Jeet Heer]

Great. Tucker? Matt?

[Mario Filipe]

If it helps, Matt posted his list on tumblr: http://mattseneca.tumblr.com/post/106516329217/indivisible-individual-the-comics-of-2014-i

And it was actually The Durutti Column who released the record with the sandpaper sleeve (PiL went with the metal box instead).

[priest omigodo]

Tucker hates commenters and will not respond. You can write literally anything and nothing will happen. I have been using an old post here as a landing page for client testimonials for almost three years now.

[tucker]

God, I love that post. I think it destroyed the sites google rating or something like that, leaving all those spam comments for so long. But it was worth it.

Sorry for the delay! I'm still getting used to the new living situation and just hadn't gotten a chance to respond yet. These are not in order--but I think Here was the most important and accomplished, my personal favorite that I reread a million times was Facility Integrity* and the one that I thought was most thrilling was Demon.

-Here
-Grandville Noel
-Demon
-Terror Assaulter
-Hospital Suite
-Facility Integrity
-Antithesis
-Loverboys
-the Jaime stuff in Love and Rockets 6
-Beautiful Darkness

After doing the podcast I went back and reread Palm Ash and I do think that probably should be up here in place of something.

*And although I didn't say it on the show: Copra, for me, is the comic I most look forward to reading and I think the Wir issue was straight up perfection. For obvious conflicts of interest, I can't pump it too hard. (Which is also why I didn't talk about Forming 2, which is another book that I adored.)

Durutti Column! Thanks Mario. I knew I was wrong but I did it anyway.

[Matt]

here ya go Jeet
http://mattseneca.tumblr.com/post/106516329217/indivisible-individual-the-comics-of-2014-i

[Joe McCulloch]

I once blocked out a Preacher-length Vertigo comic book series based on the comment thread.