My annual year-end list-making begins here, highlighting my favorite media that I’ve consumed during the year prior. Let us begin with comic books, and the ten best titles I read in 2011.
10. Kevin Smith’s Bionic Man
The obvious love for the original TV show pours out of this updated version, in which Steve Austin is almost sort of believable. Of course, this is Kevin Smith writing, so there’s just enough foul humor to keep you laughing at the action.
9. PIGS
In a world where cold-war era spy and action thrillers come out every 5.8 seconds, it takes quite a bit for one to stand out. PIGS stands out. And it is just getting started. A great, modern take on the classic sleeper-agent storyline, I can’t wait to see where this one is headed.
8. The Li’l Depressed Boy
A hipster rag-doll is navigating through the world of dating, record collecting and concert-going, and somehow it’s one of the most endearing stories I’ve ever been sucked into. Great pop culture references round out a fun view at today’s most mainstream counterculture.
7. iZombie
This monster-mash-up in Portland has everything it would need to be the cheesiest title at the comic-shop, but is so well written and full of such fun art, that it’s just a great adventure title, where monsters just happen to be all around us, yet nobody is noticing. When it comes to my favorite comic-titles, I’ve totally noticed iZombie.
6. Sweet Tooth
This comic has been around a couple of years now, and on my year-end list each year it has. I’m still sitting on the edge of my seat as I read each month, wondering how Gus fits into this post-apocalyptic conspiracy. I love this book.
5. Twenty-Seven: Second Set
The second-round of the 27 storyline was even better than the first. Now that the character has been established, and his demonic chest-piece isn’t so hard to fathom, this rock and roll story about the deals with devils artists make, in a supernatural landscape, was a really fun read. I liked the first set, and the second set had be groovin’ along even harder.
4. Infinite Vacation
My only complaint about Infinite Vacation is that it seems to come out sporadically, and I want it to be a monthly. Just in the second year of printing, but still very early in the story, I can’t wait to see where this story about surfing alternative time-lines is headed. Fun art. Great concept. Big fan.
3. Xenoholics
My odd-ball favorite of the year has to be Xenoholics, an intriguing alien story about people who are addicted to being abducted by aliens. It’s funny, filthy, goofy and still somehow enthralling. Great fun.
2. Jennifer Blood
I can’t believe this book printed all year without becoming a major blockbuster movie, because reading it felt like you were on the set of one. Action packed, this story of a housewife with a secret and murderous vendetta has me waiting eagerly for every new issue.
1. Severed
I knew that I was going to be addicted to this horror comic from the first page, and I still am. When a young musician from Jamestown, NY (across the lake from my own hometown) runs away from home to seek a lost father and a musical career in Depression-era America gets entangled with a razor-toothed man-eater, there’s bound to be a story to tell. And what a fun story Severed has been so far.