The Best Comic Books Dave Read In 2011

    This page collects all of the books I gave a rating of "Strongly Recommended" or better to come out during 2011. Books which I Strongly Recommended to limited groups are generally not included, but those with mature readers caveats are. You may notice some "Books of Note" aren't mentioned here, because they were notable for reasons other than necessarily being really good (i.e. an intriguing idea with iffy execution). Boldfaced books got a rating higher than Strongly Recommended.

    This year I largely gave up on monthlies, since I moved to a town where the only comics store was Hastings Media and I frankly didn't think it was worth supporting Diamond by ordering by mail from a distant comic shop. So it was a shift to online comics, trade paperbacks (ordered from Amazon or bought at bookstores), a few floppies ordered direct from the publisher (mostly Antarctic Press) or bought at Hastings (mainly "young readers" titles like Young Justice or Marvel Adventures Super-Heroes). I also started including more things form the "other media" category, at least on a percentage basis.

  • January
    • Ant Man & Wasp #3 (of 3): Seeley, Marvel Comics
    • Iron Man Titanium #1: Adam Warren et al, Marvel Comics
    • Evolution: the Story of Life on Earth GN: Hosler, Cannon & Cannon, Hill & Wang
    • Optical Allusions GN: Hosler, Active Synapse
  • February
    • Agatha H. and the Airship City MMPB: Foglio & Foglio, Baen Books (non-comic)
    • Amazing Spider-Man #653: Slott/Van Lente, Caselli/Brown, Marvel Comics
    • Love and Capes Ever After #1 (of 5): Zahler, IDW
  • March
    • X-Factor #217: Peter David, Lupaccino, Marvel Comics
    • Atomic Robo Deadly Art of Science #3 (of 5): Clevinger and Wegener, Red5 Comics.
    • Comic Book Comics #5 (of 6): Van Lente and Dunleavy, Evil Twin Comics
    • Amazing Spider-Man #657: Slott et al, Marvel Comics
  • April
    • Captain America the Fighting Avenger #1: Clevinger and Gurihiru, Marvel Comics
    • Love and Capes Ever After #3 (of 5): Zahler, IDW
    • Amazing Spider-Man #659: Slott, Van Lente and Caselli, Marvel Comics
  • May
    • Atomic Robo Deadly Art of Science #5 (of 5): Clevinger and Wegener, Red 5 Comics.
  • June
    • Love and Capes Ever After #5 (of 5): Zahler, IDW
    • Empowered Special #2: Warren and Warren (no relation), Dark Horse
    • Bone Tall Tales TPB: Smith, Scholastic
  • July
    • Amazing Spider-Man #666: Slott et al, Marvel Comics
  • August
    • Nothing this month
  • September
    • Sanctuary #1: Coughlin, Slave Labor Graphics
    • Sanctuary #2: Coughlin, Slave Labor Graphics
    • Sanctuary #3: Coughlin, Slave Labor Graphics
    • Feynman GN: Ottaviani and Myrick, :01 First Second
  • October
    • The Meaning of Life...and OTHER Stuff GN: Gownley, Simon & Schuster
  • November
    • Atomic Robo: the Ghost of Station X #2 (of 6): Clevinger and Wegener, Red5 Comics
    • Atomic Robo: the Ghost of Station X #3 (of 6): Clevinger and Wegener, Red5 Comics
  • December
    • Nothing this month (although Ghost of Station X #4 did come out this month and got a Strongly Recommended in the January 2012 reviews)
    Publisher count:
  • Marvel - 8
  • Red 5 Comics - 4
  • Various "traditional" book publishers - 4
  • IDW - 3
  • Slave Labor Graphics - 3
  • :01 First Second - 1
  • Active Synapse - 1
  • Dark Horse - 1
  • Evil Twin Comics - 1
    Writer count (with more than 1):
  • Brian Clevinger - 5
  • Dan Slott (solo or in combo) - 4
  • Stephen Coughlin - 3
  • Jimmy Gownley - 3
  • Fred Van Lente (solo or in combo) - 3
  • Thom Zahler - 3
  • Jay Hosler - 2
  • Adam Warren - 2
    Given that I got fewer comics overall in 2011 (dropping precipitously in August), the number of good books held up pretty well. The number of books on this list that actually came out in 2011 is a bit lower, due to a combination of discovering things late (Optical Allusions, Sanctuary) or buying collections of older stuff (Bone Tall Tales). And since I dropped to one column a month and started waiting for some digital comics to drop in price, a few things from late in 2011 actually got reviewed in January 2012.

Back to main Rants page.