Best of 2022

    This was an awkward year. My comic shop got sold to a new owner who apparently didn't want to run a comic shop (just the gaming side) and who eventually threatened me with violence to get rid of me. Then, just as I was getting in the swing of the replacement shop, they decided to discontinue weekly on-site pickup and go back to being a purely mail-delivery store and I decided that if I was going to be stuck with monthly shipments I'd look around for a better store (although this won't really kick in until 2023). I have seriously considered dropping floppies entirely as a result of all of this, and 2023 will necessarily see a change to how I review them. Meanwhile, I tried out a bunch more manga series in large part due to them being memefied on Tumblr or just seeing them on the shelf at Barnes & Noble or even Walmart. And frankly, I don't need to deal with the Diamond and Direct Market hardened arteries of distribution to get trades and graphic novels...as much as I'd like to support local business, local business doesn't seem to want my support lately.

Other Media     Nothing really grabbed me in this category, at least not without caveats. A lot of Recommended, no Strongly Recommended. Check the overall review archive for 2022 for a bunch of them. Digital Content     With ComiXology being turned to utter crap by Amazon, I've cut back on digital format in general. Note, several of the Trades and Collections started life as webcomics, so it's not like I'm not reading any good ones, I'm just saving my praise for the collections.

Trades and Collections Way of the Househusband vol 7 - Not every volume of this manga is strongly recommended (vol 8 wasn't for instance), but this one was one of the really good ones. Magical Boy vol 1-2 - Teh Kao's story of a transmale teenager finding out he's the inheritor of a magical girl heritage, oops. Started as a "pay to get more than the first few installments" webcomic. Happy Kanako's Killer Life vol 1-4 - I initially saw the first few bits of this as black and white comics shared on Tumblr, but it has since gotten a full color release and five volumes so far (vol 5 was good, but not up to the level of the first four). Spy x Family vol 1-7 - It took a little effort for me to get all of these, since I picked up vol 6 first and only the first couple had been reprinted. Another one I got into after it hit Tumblr big, although I haven't watched the anime yet. Like Kanako, there was one more volume this year, but it was merely recommended. How To Be A Mind Reaver vol 1-2 - I praised this as a webcomic when it started in 2020, but it got better. Vol 3's Kickstarter just funded, and will probably be a Best Book entry for 2023. Einstein - Jim Ottaviani's comic book biography of Albert Einstein. Love and Capes: Home for the Holidays - The second Kickstarted direct to TPB collection of Thom Zahler's "Superman and Batman are friends" comic. Floppies     Kaijumax Season Six #6 (of 6) - Zander Cannon, ending the series strong, if taking a few months extra to do it. Moon Knight #18 - Jed MacKay knows how to pay off an arc.