Comic Book Herald

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The Best Superhero Comics & Graphic Novels

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I’ve been tracking and ranking all my favorite (and least favorite!) comic books for well over a decade publicly on Comic Book Herald on the world’s most regularly updated best comics of all time guide. While the behind-the-scenes spreadsheet is approaching 1,500 ranked works, I publish the top 500 as my recommended favorites (and think they’re all quite good!). I’ve largely avoided breaking that list out into categories, but I get enough requests for just the superhero side of the coin, so ya know what, fine, we’ll break this puppy out into a best superhero comics guide!

Much like the government’s definition of pornography, I know superhero comics when I see them. Obviously, anything from Marvel and DC are easy pickings, but the selections below won’t be limited to the Big 2 superhero universes. There may well be some here that you think don’t qualify as “superhero” in the traditional “capes and superpowers” sense. That’s fair! I also won’t be changing anything! The decision’s been made! Stop pushing!

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25 Best Graphic Novels of the 2020s Decade (2020 to 2026)

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Not to brag (warning: impending nerd brag incoming!), but I’ve been really up to speed on the latest and greatest in graphic novels of the 2020s. In fact, I keep tabs on my favorites every month right here on CBH and in the CBH monthly newsletter. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that keeping up to date with all the best new graphic novels and collected editions is a LOT of reading. Which of course means the 2020s are full of LOTS of great graphic novels to explore. For this exercise, I tried to pick the 25 personal favorites I’d most highly recommend.

As far as list rules and rationale, the big one here is I made myself stick to self-contained works that fit neatly in a graphic novel. So my favorite ongoing runs of the decade – Ice Cream Man, Bitter Root, Immortal Hulk, The Department of Truth, Chainsaw Man, Kaguya-sama … hey, maybe this should be its own list? – are not included below. Otherwise, a collected work published anytime after 2020 is fair game, including the collected House of X / Powers of X (even though single issues started releasing in 2019). These graphic novels are for adults, or on occassion young adults (or like me, adults who never matured!). If you’re looking for good kids comics, hey, there’s a different list for that! As always, the list is limited to graphic novels I’ve read and that have been translated into English!

There are definitely plenty of critical darlings that do not make my personal top 25. I expect to hear the most about Barry Windsor-Smith’s Monsters, Daniel Clowes’ Monica, and Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing is Monsters Pt. 2 (if you’re starting to think that releasing a Monster-themed long graphic novel from Fantagraphics is the key to success, I can see why!). Those are interesting comics from incredible talents. They aren’t on my list! Deal with it! Or don’t! I hate conflict!

As a final note, I have no idea why I limited this to 25 graphic novels, it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever done to myself. There are so many good comics I wanted to include here, but you can find them all on the list of my favorite comics of all time, or of course, each list of my favorites for each year since 2020! I have no idea what I’m going to do when I need to update this list for the full decade, aside from probably include 100 graphic novels for adults to save myself the stress! [Read more…] about 25 Best Graphic Novels of the 2020s Decade (2020 to 2026)

My Favorite Graphic Novels of January 2024

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Below you’ll find my favorite graphic novels or collected editions released in January 2024. Generally, I’m looking to keep the selections to collections released for the first-time, but I’ll make some special exceptions for Omnibus or Deluxe Editions. I’ve ordered the selections in relative preference, in ascending order.

Please keep in mind this is *not* the same thing as my favorite single issue comics of the month, although while I’m thinking about it that list includes the following this month:

Ultimate Spider-Man #1

Rise of the Powers of X #1

Resurrection of Magneto #1

Don’t hesitate to let me know any of your favorites I may have missed via dave@comicbookherald.com!

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The Best Comics of 2022!

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It continues to be nearly impossible to keep up with all the good comics coming out every year, as there’s never been a wider variety of high quality publishers and access to both current and historical comic books. To help ease the search for the best of the best, I’m keeping a list of my favorite comics of 2022 here, with only my absolute favorites of the year making the cut. [Read more…] about The Best Comics of 2022!