The Best Comic Books Dave Read In 2003

    This page collects all of the books I gave a rating of "Strongly Recommended" or better to come out during 2003. Books which I Strongly Recommended to limited groups are generally not included, but those with mature readers caveats are. You may notice some "Best Book" winners aren't mentioned here, because they were simply the best of a weak week. Boldfaced books got a rating higher than Strongly Recommended.

    So, here it is, broken down by month. Be warned that this reflects my reading habits, there may well have been some excellent titles out there I didn't read for whatever reason. Also note that my year started out pretty shaky with Antarctic (opened with the last freebie pack which has some stuff from 2002, and then Diamond took to not shipping Antarctic stuff until a month or more late). Antarctic books will be listed for the month I got 'em, rather than trying to track down shipping dates.

  • January
    • Dork Tower Lord of the Rings Special - John Kovalic, Dork Storm
    • Gold Digger v3 #38 - Fred Perry, Antarctic Press
    • NHS #101 - Bevard/Bair, Antarctic Press
    • NHS #102 - Bevard/Bair, Antarctic Press
    • Neotopia v1 #1 (of 5) - Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press
  • February
    • Astro City Local Heroes #1 (of 5) - Kurt Busiek, DC/Wildstorm
    • Fantastic Four v3 #66 - Mark Waid (I think), Marvel
    • Supergirl #79 - Peter David, DC
  • March
    • Black Panther v2 #55 - Priest, Marvel
    • Captain Marvel v4 #7 - Peter David, Marvel
    • Black Panther v2 #56 - Priest, Marvel
  • April
    • PS238 #1 - Aaron Williams, Dork Storm Press
    • Gold Digger v3 #41 - Fred Perry, Antarctic Press
    • Astro City Local Hereos #2 (of 5) - Kurt Busiek, DC/Wildstorm
    • TechJacket #5 - Robert Kirkman, Image
  • May
    • NHS #104 - Bevard/Bair, Antarctic Press
    • Neotopia v1 #4 (of 5) - Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press
    • TechJacket #6 - Robert Kirkman, Image
  • June
    • Black Panther v2 #60 - Priest, Marvel
    • Iron Man v3 #69 - Robin Laws, Marvel
    • Planetary/Batman: Night On Earth - Warren Ellis, DC/Wildstorm
  • July
    • Hunter the Age of Magic #25 - Dylan Horrocks, DC/Vertigo
    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Animated #2 - Peter David, Dreamworks
    • NHS #107 - Bevard/Bair, Antarctic Press
    • Arrowsmith #1 - Kurt Busiek, DC/Wildstorm
    • Girl Genius #9 - Foglios, Airship Entertainment
    • Black Panther v2 #62 - Priest, Marvel
  • August
    • Neotopia v2 #1 (of 5) - Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press
    • Ultimate Adventures #5 - Ron Zimmerman, Marvel
  • September
    • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v2 #6 (of 6) - Alan Moore, DC/ABC
    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Animated #4 - Peter David, Dreamwave
    • Neotopia v2 #2 (of 5) - Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press
    • The Collected Paleo: Tales of the Cretaceous - Steve Bissette, Empty Sky
    • eXiles #34 - Judd Winick, Marvel
    • Akiko and the Journey to Toog - Mark Crilley, Delacorte Press (book, not comic)
  • October
    • Supreme Power #3 - J.M.S., Marvel MAX
    • Batman Adventures #7 - Dan Slott, DC
    • Girl Genius #10 - Foglios, Airship Entertainment
    • Transformers Genesis - Art book, Image
    • Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman DVD - Warner Bros
    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Animated #5 - Peter David, Dreamwave
  • November
    • Green Arrow #32 - Judd Winick, DC
    • PS238 #4 - Aaron Williams, Dork Storm Press
    • Dork Tower #25 - John Kovalic (et al), Dork Storm Press
    • JLA/Avengers #3 (of 4) - Kurt Busiek, Marvel/DC
    • Batman Adventures #8 - Dan Slott, DC
  • December
    • Akiko #51 - Mark Crilley, Sirius
    • Neotopia v2 #4 (of 5) - Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press
    • JSA #55 - Geoff Johns, DC
    • Neotopia v2 #5 (of 5) - Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press
    Yes, I rather like Neotopia. Get the trades. In fact, while my Antarctic reading list narrowed down quite a bit after the review copies stopped flowing, it was a lot of quality in that reduced quantity, with Antarctic showing up a dozen times (mostly Neotopia, a lot of NHS, some Gold Digger). Okay, a few of those books came out in 2002, but hey. Still three titles to follow.

    A couple of defunct books performed well on my list, Black Panther continuing to have a heavy presence up to the end, and a big chunk of Peter David's TMNT series (now on hiatus due to low sales) show up.

    Finally, there were no "better than Strongly Recommended" books this year, I guess I just wasn't bowled over as much.

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