The Best Comic Books Dave Read In 2008

    This page collects all of the books I gave a rating of "Strongly Recommended" or better to come out during 2008. 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.

    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. Sometimes I forgot to note the artist, and didn't really feel like digging it up. :) In those cases, I'll say "and ??", otherwise it's a single creator doing writing and art.


  • January
    • Damage Control #1 (of 3): McDuffie and Espin, Marvel.
    • Blue Beetle #23: Rogers and Albuquerque, DC.
    • Amelia Rules! #19: Gownley, Renaissance Press.
    • Amelia Rules! TPBs vol 1 and 2: Gownley, Renaissance Press.
    • Miki Falls: Winter: Crilley, Harper Teen.
  • February
    • Astro City Special Beautie: Busiek and Anderson, DC/Wildstorm.
    • Atomic Robo #5 (of 6): Clevinger and Wegener, Red5 Comics.
    • Cable & Deadpool #50 (Final Issue): Nicieza/Brown and Brown, Marvel.
    • Doctor Who #1: Russell and Roche, IDW.
    • Damage Control #2 (of 3): McDuffie and Espin, Marvel.
    • Blue Beetle #24: Rogers and Albuquerque, DC.
  • March
    • Comic Book Comics #1: Van Lente and Dunleavy, Evil Twin Comics.
    • Atomic Robo #6 (of 6): Clevinger and Wegener, Red5 Comics.
    • Empowered vol 3: Warren, Dark Horse.
    • Damage Control #3 (of 3): McDuffie and Espin, Marvel.
  • April
    • Iron Man Movie Novelization: Peter David, Del Rey.
    • The Last Defenders #2 (of 6): Casey and Muniz, Marvel.
    • The Incredible Hercules #116: Pak/Van Lente and Sandoval, Marvel.
    • Young Avengers Presents #4 (of 6): Cornell and Brooks/Mendoza, Marvel.
    • Shadowpact #24: Sturges and Winslade, DC.
    • Hulk vs. Hercules one-shot: Pak/Van Lente and Various, Marvel.
  • May
    • Amelia Rules! TPB vol 4: Gownley, Renaissance Press.
    • The Brave and the Bold #13: Waid and Ordway, DC.
  • June
    • The Amazing Spider-Man #563: Gale and McKone, Marvel.
    • Young Avengers Presents #6 (of 6): Fraction and Davis/Farmer, Marvel.
    • Gold Digger: Tifanny & Charoltte #1: Perry and Anderson, Antarctic Press.
  • July
    • Booster Gold #1,000,000: Jurgens, DC.
    • Ambush Bug Year None #1 (of 6): Giffen, Fleming and Milgrom, DC.
    • Blue Beetle #29: Sturges and Albuquerque, DC.
  • August
    • Comicbook Comics #2: Van Lente and Dunleavy, Evil Twin Comics.
    • Action Philosophers! vol 1-3: Van Lente and Dunleavy, Evil Twin Comics. (Didn't come out in 2008, but that's when I bought 'em.)
    • Blue Beetle #30: Sturges and Albuquerque, DC.
    • Arsenic Lullaby Pulp Edition No. Zero: Pasczkiewicz, Arsenic Lullaby Publishing.
  • September
    • The Incredible Hercules #121: Pak/Van Lente and Henry, Marvel.
  • October
    • Secret Six #2: Simone and Scott, DC.
    • Amazing Spider-Man #573: Slott/Waid and Romita Jr./Oliffe, Marvel.
    • Atomic Robo Dogs of War #3 (of 5): Clevinger and Wegener, Red 5 Comics.
    • Aetheric Mechanics Graphic Novella: Ellis and Pagliarani, Avatar/Apparat.
    • Gold Digger Halloween Special #4: Perry, Dunn, Various, Antarctic Press.
    • Empowered vol 4: Warren, Dark Horse.
  • November
    • Cthulhu Tales #8: Various, Boom! Studios.
    • Amazing Spider-Man #577: Wells and Rivera, Marvel.
    • Atomic Robo Dogs of War #4 (of 5): Clevinger and Wegener, Red 5 Comics.
    • Blue Beetle #33: Sturges and Albuquerque, DC.
  • December
    • Larry Marder's Beanworld Holiday Special: Marder, Dark Horse
    • Farscape #1 (of 4): O'Bannon/DeCandido and Patterson, Boom! Studios.
    • Atomic Robo Dogs of War #5 (of 5): Clevinger and Wegener, Red 5 Comics.
    • Love and Capes TPB: Zahler, IDW/Maerkle (yes, this is reviewed in 2009, but it was late getting to me and came out in 2008)

    Publisher count:
  • Marvel - 14
  • DC (and all sub-imprints) - 10
  • Red 5 Comics - 5
  • Renaissance Press - 4
  • Dark Horse - 3
  • Antarctic Press - 2
  • Boom! Studios - 2
  • Evil Twin - 2 (5 if you count pre-2008 stuff)
  • IDW - 2
  • Arsenic Lullaby Publishing - 1
  • Avatar/Apparat - 1
  • Harper Teen - 1
  • Del Rey - 1
    Writer count (with more than 1):
  • Brian Clevinger - 5
  • Jimmy Gownley - 4
  • Matt Sturges - 4
  • Dwayne McDuffie - 3 (all the same title)
  • Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente - 3
  • Fred Perry - 2
  • John Rogers - 2
  • Adam Warren - 2
  • Fred Van Lente solo - 2 (plus 3 pre-2008)
  • Mark Waid - 1 (plus 1 with Slott)
    A couple of pretty dry months there, eh? There were a few stand-outs, though. Empowered continued its streak, I discovered I really like Van Lente's writing (I'm pretty sure Pak's just plotting at this point on Herc), and while most miniseries started strong and fizzled out (I'm looking at you, Doctor Who and Ambush Bug!), Damage Control stayed strong the whole way through. Atomic Robo wasn't pure win all year, but it was on this list more often than it wasn't. Marvel still tops my list, but it's mostly due to McDuffie and Van Lente, who worked around the edges of the Mandatory Company Events. I got lucky and Rogers's strong run on Blue Beetle was followed by an almost equally strong run from Sturges, but on the unlucky side it looks like Sturges will bring Blue Beetle in for a strong finale like he did for Shadowpact. Boom! Studios has started to make a strong showing, both in its Cthulhu anthology and in its increasing number of other licensed properties. As of writing this, I'm still waiting on a few late books from 2008, but I don't think any of them will get onto this list.

    All told, 44 pieces of new work (including one novel and five "large" new works), four new collections of older work (although two included work that came out in 2008) and three collections of old work. Of the new pieces, six were intentionally one-shots, sixteen are part of planned limited serieses (that assumes that both Empowered and Tifanny & Charlotte will not end, although both have been mentioned as at least starting as limited series ideas), two were from series cancelled in 2008 (Cable & Deadpool, Shadowpact) and four were issues of Blue Beetle (which is cancelled in 2009). I think Brave and the Bold is "cancelled" in 2009 too, although I'm told it'll continue as a non-continuity book despite the new "Batman: the Brave and the Bold" comic coming in 2009. Going through the rest, and considering a few titles that are known to be sold in repeated miniseries (i.e. Atomic Robo), there's not a whole lot of books I'm looking forward to seeing continued greatness from:

    You'll notice that I left off a few books that aren't cancelled yet but that are on the 2008 list. That's because there's been changes in creative team or other events that make me dubious of the book's continued quality. For instance, the total nosedive taken by Doctor Who kept me from even picking up the second miniseries. And, of course, there's bound to be really good stuff that's either totally new in 2009, or taken over by a good writer (i.e. Mighty Avengers is getting Slott, so has a chance of being good).


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