The Best Comics of the Decade

A detail from Declan Shalvey and Warren Ellis’s beautiful sci-fi series Injection. Line art by Shalvey, colors by Jordie Bellaire.

Hello, patient readers! For the new year I wanted to write something of undeniable utility to you, and if you agree with me and like this sort of thing, please tell me so and I will do more of it (for a future edition, if folks want: the 99 best children’s picture books, as chosen by me with input from our three-year-old). This edition started as my annoyance at a number of lists of similar size that I won’t name and shame here. They felt both overly dutiful and still somehow undercooked, as though they’d been written by people who felt a responsibility to everything and everyone except the reader, and that they had been compiled by people who read widely but not deeply. And I wanted to read a similar something that was both passionate and well-informed. So I’ve written the former, at least.

My rules for the composition of this list, since ten years is a long time to survey, were as follows:

1. No artist or writer may appear more than once with the exception of anthology or jam books. This started to feel a little arbitrary by the end of the compilation, but it helped out with rule #2:
2. As many different kinds of comics as possible must be included.
3. No including things I didn’t like just because I read them. (this was harder than it sounds!)
4. Actually read the things on the list and don’t just add them because I’d heard they were good. (also hard!)
5. Work that began before the decade started but ended during its duration is eligible; so is work that is not yet complete as of this writing (I did not let myself list work that fits the latter category in my piece for The Guardian along similar lines).
6. The work here appears in alphabetical order. See the above Guardian piece for a shorter list of books I absolutely adored and some longer explanations of why

This involved a lot of reading of new work on my part, which is something I really enjoy, doubly so when it’s for a project that I will eventually publish. I hope you enjoy this list, too, and consult it when you want to read things that are good or buy Christmas or birthday presents or just for fun. I realized fairly early on in making this that I would run out of superlatives very quickly if I tried to tell you what I liked most about these books, so I have opted in most cases to simply tell you what they’re about; sometimes that sounds especially appetizing and sometimes it just doesn’t, but if it’s on this list, I think most people who like my writing here should read it.

My final caveat is that this is me shooting from the hip, extra reading and long gestation period aside. I’m just one guy. I know this list is very male, and very white. It is, in many ways, a picture of the inside of my head, for good and for ill, and as much as I would like to be someone to whom work by women and marginalized creators is marketed and promoted, I am not. I try to seek it out, but I also read a lot of comics, so the proportions are off. Compiling this helped me to change that a little bit! 

I’ve put an asterisk next to the books I think my kid, who is three, might enjoy some time between now and his tenth birthday, and a dagger next to those that I would not read while he was looking over my shoulder. So make of that what you will; I’m not here to tell you how to parent but if you want to know more about any single entry, please email me and we can chat about it.

All entries are single codexes unless otherwise noted. Where books are published in multiple editions, I have listed the easiest to find, i.e., Last Look is one paperback volume, not three big hardcovers. Where books are ongoing, I have noted that as well.

I hope you enjoy it, and that you find something new and cool to read by doing so.

1. Achewood by Chris Onstad (webcomic, also in hard copy)Every annoying Twitter comedian loves this longrunning webcomic. It really is brilliant. 
2. Age of Ultron by Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan HitchMarvel Comics’s event miniseries get a bad rap; this mammoth time-travel story, about evil robot Ultron taking over the world, has a punchy script by Bendis and perfect superhero art by Hitch, one of the all-time greats.
3. Amnesia: The Lost Films of Francis D. Longfellow by Al Columbia†Columbia’s appallingly perverse paintings are always hard to put a narrative frame around, but it’s impossible to look away from this collection of fake one-sheets for the work of an imaginary cartoons director whose work recalls the Fleischer Brothers’ most psychoactive ideas.
4. The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf (three volumes, two forthcoming)Sattouf’s memoir about growing up in Libya is drawn in an engaging, funny, ironic style that belies the complexity of its subject matter; one of the few really original and interesting entries in the graphic memoir genre in recent years.
5. The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny LiewA meticulous history of American comics that is also a history of Malaysia, told as an unlikely art book about a failing cartoonist who copies dozens of twentieth century omics artists’ styles in an effort to document the seismic changes to his country.
6. Athos in America by JasonDour Dutch cartoonist Jason’s funniest book may be this story of musketeer Athos, confident and out of place on US soil.
7. Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann†Hanselmann’s poisonous comedy is maturing into something more heartfelt in this lovely graphic novel, a kind of raw counterpoint to Matt Furie’s Boys’ Club.
8. Batman: Noel by Lee BermejoBermejo’s bibliography has far too many humorless Brian Azzarello scripts in it, so it’s a relief to read this lighthearted Christmas tale with Batman himself cast as Scrooge. He draws fantastically beautiful pages and his layouts are always inventive; this is easily his best work.
9. Batman: The Kings of Fear by Kelley Jones and Scott PetersonJones just gets better with age; this fantastically beautiful Batman story looks a little dim in synopsis—The Scarecrow messes with Batman—but in execution it’s largely a collection of wonderfully demented things for Jones to draw.
10. Battling Boy by Paul Pope*A YA graphic novel that cross-pollinates Jack Kirby, Dune, and John Carter of Mars, all to charming effect with Pope’s beautiful inks on full display. His Adam Strange strip in DC’s Wednesday Comics anthology is similarly beautiful.
11. Berlin by Jason LutesA massive opus twenty years in the making about the decline of Weimar Berlin and the ascent of the Nazi Party, its every background drawing a dozen pages’ worth of historical, artistic, and architectural research, its foreground Dickensian and thrilling.
12. Beverly by Nick DrnasoDrnaso’s Sabrina won the Booker; I prefer the more elliptical collection of linked Rick Moody-style short stories that preceded it. It’s as incisive a book about life in suburbia as has been written in twenty years.
13. Billie the Bee by Mary Fleener*Fleener’s cubistic, strange, and informative book about bees does nothing any other comic ever has.
14. The Black Beetle by Francesco FrancavillaFrancavilla’s high-contrast pulp comic is the artist’s best work and a treat for fans of vintage pulp writing.
15. The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker (two volumes, more forthcoming)An inventive mystery book with a stew of conspiracy theories and high finance as its lore.
16. Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang (two volumes, sold together)*An inventive retelling of the Boxer Rebellion from both sides, one for each book.
17. Boys Club by Matt FurieFor all the consternation that Pepe the Frog caused, his origins as a harmless stoner icon are very much worth checking out.
18. Building Stories by Chris WareWare gets dinged–justifiably–for being gloomier than necessary in much of his other work; here, his absolute joy in the craft of comics and his love of his strange, sad characters shines through, in this collection of disparate little volumes, strips, and doodles in the margins of his margins.
19. Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz ChastChast’s uproarious comedic memoir of her beloved parents’ decline and death is wittier and more poignant than any book on this subject has a right to be.
20. Captain America: White by Jeph Loeb and Tim SaleAnother long-delayed release—a hugely stylish Captain America tale by Loeb, whose collaborations with Sale (Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, Hulk: Gray) have a solid, Norman Rockwell-esque vibe perfectly fitting the character.
21. Castle Waiting Linda Medley (two volumes)*Medley’s life’s work, about a castle where the fairy tale royalty are out on adventures and the staff are left to their own devices, remains essential.
22. Cosplayers by Dash ShawA kind of Ghost World for millennials, Shaw’s adolescent drama is more tightly focused than his larger work and, as a consequence, a bit more satisfying, too.
23. Coyote Doggirl by Lisa HanawaltHanawalt, of Bojack Horseman fame, draws a comedy Western about a half-dog, half-coyote protagonist. The jokes go off like whoopee cushions every few pages and the watercolors are unlike anything anyone else is doing.
24. Daredevil by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, et al (11 volumes)Exactly what you’d like a superhero comic to be: Gripping but light, fun with high stakes, drawn so adroitly the panels seem to flow into each other. 
25. Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel BáMoon and Bá, brothers, write and draw this ten-part story of a man who dies at the end of every chapter, only to return when the narrative picks back up in the next installment as though nothing had happened.
26. Everything Together by Sammy HarkhamA lovely volume of deeply felt short stories by Harkham, whose spare drawings elicit rare and surprising emotional connections and seem drawn directly from memory.
27. The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean PhillipsThe strongest collaboration yet between the comics noir team, The Fade Out has no storytelling gimmicks, no supernatural twist, and resolves as confidently as a Billy Wilder movie.
28. The Flintstones by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh (two volumes)An absolute treasure of a comedy book with scabrous commentary on capitalism and its discontents, framed as the misadventures of the stars from the 1970s stone-age animated sitcom.
29. Fury: My War Gone By by Garth Ennis and Goran ParlovSome of Ennis’s strongest work in years, if not his best ever, the author reunites with Punisher artist Parlov to draw an operatic war story about Marvel Comics’s second-favorite soldier and his disturbing decline.
30. The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins*A willful, strange, charcoal-drawn graphic novel about a gigantic beard that may or may not be malicious.
31. Glenn Ganges in The River at Night by Kevin HuizengaA bizarre, beautiful, impossible book about the depths of memory and imagination.
32. Goliath by Tom GauldAnother Bible story, this one a lovely retelling of the story of David and Goliath, rendered sympathetically from Goliath’s perspective.
33. Grandville by Bryan TalbotI have no excuses for Grandville, Bryan Talbot’s five-volume series of self-contained mystery comics about a badger detective in a world filled with anthropomorphic animals, where humans who look like Herge drawings are a subaltern class and 9/11 was an inside job. But I do recommend it.
34. Groo: Friends and Foes by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier*After a few heavy-handed miniseries in which Groo experiences contemporary problems like the financial crisis, Aragones and Evanier return to form in a big story revisiting all the old supporting characters from the delightful series’s salad days.
35. Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories by Ben KatchorKatchor’s gorgeous comics are in color in this terrific collection of short pieces; his eye for humor in the absurd and lapidary has never been sharper and the generous proportions of this collection make it, I would argue, his best.
36. The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor DavisAn impossibly adroit consolidation of everything urgent in American life, told in a dazzling variance of styles by one of the preeminent cartoonists working.
37. Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (webcomic, also in hard copy)Beaton’s sidesplitting webcomic remains some of the funniest literary humor ever written and her historical gags will have you racing to look up obscure Canadians.
38. Head Lopper by Andrew MacLean (three volumes, ongoing)A swords-and-sandals fantasy comic with stylish monsters and a simple, kinetic visual sense that carries the reader through edge-of-your-seat swordfights and creeping through its strange dungeons.
39. Hellboy in Hell by Mike Mignola (two volumes)Mignola’s wry hero finds himself where he was always going to end up: Back home in The Bad Place. The art is filled with cavernous blacks and stylized reds and Mignola’s love of folklore comes to the forefront in the best possible way.
40. Here by Richard McGuireMcGuire expands his strip for Raw, which is just several drawings of the same living room throughout history, into a genuine art object. Don’t expect a narrative, but do keep it around to flip through it for happy surprises.
41. High Soft Lisp by Gilbert Hernandez†Hernandez’s lovely collection of stories about his brilliant ingenue actress, Fritz, is the best reduction of his gifts in a single volume so far; it has meta-stories from Fritz’s B-movie adventures, tales of her childhood in Palomar, comedy, tragedy… the works.
42. Homestuck by Andrew Hussie (webcomic)Hussie’s vast webcomic is less a story at this point and more a way of life, or maybe a minor religion. Worth a try, and possibly a declaration of undying fealty, depending on your tastes.
43. The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett (five volumes, ongoing)Ewing writes and Bennett draws a story of Bruce Banner on the lam and his alter ego a genuine horror fiction creation—conflicted, powerful, and terrifying. 
44. Injection by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey (five volumes planned, two forthcoming)A dour, funny, very British sci-fi story about ghosts, bad decisions, class, and bureaucracy, with kinetic art by Shalvey that often blossoms into wonderful, mushroomy strangeness.
45. Is This How You See Me? by Jaime HernandezHernandez draws sentimental tale of middle-aged women attending a punk reunion concert and coming to grips with who they are and who they were.
46. Journalism by Joe SaccoSacco’s best collection of short work so far, a series of journalistic essays dealing with everything from the upsurge in immigration to his native Malta to the torture of detainees in George W. Bush’s War on Terror.
47. Killing and Dying by Adrian TomineTomine’s collection of stylistically variant short pieces is the best work of literary fiction on the market this decade in any form.
48. Kirby: Genesis by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, and Jackson HerbertA new “universe” of Jack Kirby-created characters that don’t reside in either the DC or Marvel IP hives, the adroit eight-issue miniseries was probably supposed to be a big franchise start for publisher Dynamite. They didn’t get Kirby Cinematic Universe out of the effort but they *did* get a beautiful book with terrific interiors laid out and occasionally painted by Ross.
49. Ladykiller by Joelle Jones (two volumes)Jones writes and draws a kinetic miniseries about housewife/hitwoman; it’s a book with something close to an ideal ratio of rendering to panel progression for an action comic.
50. Last Look by Charles Burns†A lovely look at regret and the high price some people unexpectedly have to pay for adolescent foolishness, rendered with the incredibly precise hand for which Burns has long been known, and, for the first time in his career, in color.
51. Le Major by MoebiusThe final comic about Major Grubert, the hapless hero of Moebius’s mischievous Man from the Ciguri and Airtight Garage comics, is only a sketchbook. It’s still perfect.
52. The Lie and How We Told It by Tommi Parish†A beautifully painted comic about identity and loss with a surprising digression and vast depth of character, especially for something so short.
53. Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland by Eric Shanower and Gabriel Rodriguez*Winsor McCay’s opulent Sunday strip is such a foundational text to the history of comics that it seems ridiculous to write a modern version, but Shanower and Rodriguez escape the problems of influence by making their work a longer narrative, filled with visual trickery that pays homage to the original work without drawing unflattering comparison—a difficult task indeed.
54. Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir by Matt Wagner and Michael Wm. KalutaWagner’s Madame Xanadu series was the perfect bone to throw fans of his late, lamented 1920’s crime comic, Sandman Mystery Theater. It didn’t last, but its second arc features astounding interiors by Arthur Rackham-esque artist Kaluta, and a supernatural mystery plot with plenty of tension.
55. March by John Lewis and Nate Powell (three volumes)Lewis’s autobio, drawn by Powell, needs little introduction. It is a masterpiece both of the memoir form and of historical nonfiction.
56. Mark Twain’s Autobiography, 1910-2010 by Michael KuppermanKupperman’s genius for comic absurdity is at its apex in this book, a half-novel, half-cartoon masterpiece of light fiction.
57. Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus by Chester Brown†Brown has drawn quite a bit in recent years—this, his follow-up to his memoir Paying for It, about his experiences hiring sex workers and finally becoming partners with one, is the best of the lot. It’s a collection of Bible stories, some of them a bit tendentious (he insists on seeing Ruth as Boaz’s seducer) but all conceived with Brown’s breathtaking gift for simplicity. An angel is realized as feet dangling into the frame from above; God is a giant; Jesus is never pictured. It’s a lovely, surprisingly respectful book.
58. Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt (six volumes)An exceedingly dense and fun story of mind control and spycraft by writer-artist Matt Kindt, with subplots, palimpsests, and clues hidden in the gutters and the margins.
59. Ms Marvel by G Willow Wilson and Adrian AlphonaA clever and fun superhero book about a young Muslim woman who gets super powers; the art is just lovely and Wilson is as charming a writer as you could want.
60. The Multiversity by Grant Morrison, et alMorrison’s unified field theory of superheroes takes the form of nine one-shots set in eight wildly different universes, illustrated by a pantheon of gifted artists including Morrison’s best collaborator, Frank Quitely.
61. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (two volumes planned, one forthcoming)A gobsmackingly beautiful murder mystery/bildungsroman/love letter to 1960’s Chicago/treatise on painting, done almost entirely in multicolored ballpoint pen.
62. My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf†A true crime comic with an ace up its sleeve: The author really did go to school with serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer. You go in expecting a gruesome horror story and you go out wanting to give a hug to every weird kid who got beat up in high school.
63. The Nib by Matt Bors, et al (5 volumes, ongoing)A comics newsmagazine that went from endangered to essential in little more than moments.
64. Notes on a Case of Melancholia, or, A Little Death by Nicholas GurewitchGurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship webcomic was always wonderfully tasteless, and his graphic novel is both funny and a work of prodigious artistic achievement in a new style for Gurewitch, reminiscent of Edward Gorey.
65. Nursery Rhyme Comics by various*An absolutely gorgeous collection of fairy tales by artists from Craig Thompson to Kate Beaton, some traditional, some cleverly bent.
66. Orc Stain by James StokoeStokoe’s higher-profile work is probably his Godzilla and Aliens comics, but his best is absolutely this bizarre fantasy series, his gorgeously busy renderings a total delight.
67. Pachyderme by Frederik PeetersPeeters draws the dreamlike story of a young woman wandering the halls of a hospital where either she or her husband lies unconscious during the aftermath of the second world war.
68. Richard Stark’s Parker by Darwyn Cooke, from the novels by Donald E Westlake (four volumes)An obvious labor of love for the late, lamented Cooke, a worthy successor to midcentury greats like Alex Toth and Bernard Krigstein. They’re back-pocket roman noir novels with Cooke’s gorgeous blacks soaking every page.
69. Patience by Daniel ClowesDan Clowes’s marvelous sci-fi opus departs from his usual realism and muted pastels, but it’s still filled with weird characters who seem like people you’d run into (or away from) at the grocery.
70. Picture This by Lynda Barry*Of Barry’s instructional comics, this is my favorite; it also contains Marlys, her little-girl alter ego, and is almost a workbook for making yourself happy. Unconventional, and lovely.
71. The Playwright by Darren White and Eddie CampbellA Julian Barnes-esque unsentimental love story, with Campbell’s frank gouache art a deadpan counterpoint to the quiet pomposity of White’s self-regarding hero.
72. Poochytown by Jim WoodringThe culmination of twenty years of fantastically strange stories by Jim Woodring, set in his sentient world of the Unifactor and starring his little generically anthropomorphic creation, Frank. A beauty.
73. Prince of Cats by Ronald WimberlyWimberly’s book is part Frank Miller ninja comic, part blaxploitation flick, part Romeo and Juliet. That it exists is a small miracle; that it works is a big one.
74. Prison Pit by Johnny Ryan (six volumes)†A perverted and disgusting romp through hell, starring a vile murderer named Cannibal Fuckface, who must dismember his way out of a space prison. Loads of fun.
75. Providence by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows (three volumes)†Alan Moore’s goodbye to the comics world is also an ode to HP Lovecraft and a skeptical assessment of the human race’s ability to pull itself out of its slump; it is both frank about Lovecraft’s faults and unfailingly progressive in its use of them, suggesting that true horror comes from the way we fail to honor people weaker than we are.
76. Puma Blues by Stephen Murphy and Michael ZulliA laid-back environmentalist sci-fi comic that went offline for more than twenty-five years and finally saw completion in 2015, Zulli’s Audobon-level renderings of animals make this book Beatrix Potter for the climate change generation.
77. Saga by Bryan K Vaughn and Fiona Staples (nine volumes, ongoing, on haitus)†Sure, it’s overpraised, but the gonzo sci-fi series is so briskly paced it’s hard to find time to complain about its thin characters and overwrought dialogue while you’re reading the book, and Fiona Staples’ vibrant art is beyond reproach.
78. The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams IIIGaiman’s beautiful return to his landmark superhero series is a total delight for the eyes thanks to his unbeatably weird imagination and the lush artwork of JH Williams III, a cartoonist who can apparently do anything.
79. Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley (six volumes)O’Malley’s six-volume faux-anime comic about Canadian hipsters living in a video game-ish version of Toronto has tons of heart and a wry sense of humor. 
80. The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (three volumes)Arguably the best of Mark Millar’s sneery sci-fi titles, The Secret Service boasts wish-fulfillment fantasy of the highest order, given a little more humor than it might otherwise have by Gibbons deadpan artwork.
81. Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (five volumes, one forthcoming)†An earthy, hilariously funny, reliably surprising book about a couple who start fucking and find that when they come together, they stop time for everyone but themselves. They use this power to rob banks.
82. Shadows on the Grave by Richard Corben†Corben remains one of the most important cartoonists ever to pick up a pen; his most recent collection of original short horror stories is among his best work.
83. Shaolin Cowboy: Shemp Buffet by Geof Darrow†Darrow sheds his penchant for comic monologues and absurdity in this volume, which is a single huge sequence of our hero, the Shaolin Cowboy, carving his way through hundreds, maybe thousands of zombies. 
84. Shazam! Vol. 1 by Geoff Johns and Gary FrankJohns is a smart writer whose aspirations have taken him some dumb places, but when he manages to connect, he often hits a home run. With Shazam!, serialized in the back of Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League series, Johns and the marvelous superhero artist Gary Frank give the kid-friendly hero a clever, not-too-dark upgrade. DC’s New 52 experiment got a lot of grief for its worst missteps (which, to be fair, were around high-profile titles like Batman/Superman and and its giant profusion of multi-title sublines devoted to characters who could handle one monthly book, tops), but some of its reinventions were good, and this was one of the better ones.
85. Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Michael Allred (five volumes)*Allred’s pop-art style was never better suited to a writer’s scripts than with Slott’s aggressively kid-friendly Doctor Who homage version of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s morose demigod.
86. Songy of Paradise by Gary PanterGary Panter’s exploration of epic poetry mashes up Dante and Milton in a messily beautiful book that jams arcane and silly symbolism together with medieval iconography.
87. Teen Titans: Games by Marv Wolfman and George PerezA lost gem from the golden years of DC’s attempt to best the X-Men, this graphic novel finally saw print in 2013. It’s Perez at the height of his powers and a solid Wolfman script from the glory days.
88. This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki*The Tamaki sisters’ young adult novel about a family on the cusp of huge changes is rendered entirely in shades of blue, its inking a constant delight.
89. To Have and to Hold by Graham ChafeeTattoo artist Chafee’s adroit graphic novel is the purest possible form of James M Cain short of digging the late novelist up and snorting him. It’s a remarkably assured piece of cartooning and characterization.
90. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North, Erica Henderson, and Derek Charm (12 volumes)*North’s adroit, funny scripts and Henderson’s hilarious art (no slight on Charm that she defines the book’s cartoony, deadpan style) make for a kind of lighthearted fun that ought to be the standard at Marvel Comics.
91. Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan DanielsAn extraordinarily weird story about immortality and family; really like nothing else I’ve read.
92. Usagi Yojimbo: Sensō by Stan Sakai*Everything Usagi Yojimbo is worth reading but this tale of samurai fighting aliens is particularly fun. As always, his work is good for young readers.
93. The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta (two volumes)King’s moment of high-profile showbiz success may be more or less over, but his best work is still this Ice Storm-style take on life as an android with an android wife and kids in a very normal, non-android suburb.
94. When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll†Carroll’s painterly, generous graphic novel succeeds her lovely short story collection. It, too, has shades of Angela Carter, but the new work is more assured and the use of color especially daring. 
95. Woman Rebel by Peter BaggeBagge’s scabrous Hate is a fondly remembered alt-comics fixture and his cartoons at Reason magazine are one of the few reasons to read that publication, but he’s recently focused on biographies of famous women. This is his meticulous narrative of Margaret Sanger’s life, and its controversies.
96. Wonder Woman: The True Amazon by Jill Thompson*A portrait of the superhero as a young amazon with much to learn about patience and humility, told in Thompson’s assured watercolors, with special attention paid to the needs of younger readers.
97. Wondermark by David Malki (webcomic)Malki’s cultural landmark of a webcomic has the master comedian’s ear for quirks of modern life that don’t yet have names (see “The Terrible Sea Lion,” which has an entire form of internet trolling—sealioning—named after it).
98. Wytches by Scott Snyder and JockA Stephen King-style horror book with expressionistic art and deep characters.
99. xkcd by Randall Munroe (webcomic)Munroe’s silly, computer-nerdy webcomic is proof that you don’t need to be Wally Wood to make interesting narrative comics. There are plenty of great one-off gags, but Munroe’s masterwork is inarguably the cartoon linked above, a 3100-panel masterpiece called Time.