The Best Comic Books Dave Read In 1999

    This page collects all of the books I gave a rating of "Strongly Recommended" or better to during 1999. 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.

    So, here it is, broken down by month. Books which got ratings better than "Strongly Recommended" will be in boldface. Books in (parentheses) were Strongly Recommended, but only to a particular readership. 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.


  • January
    • Gotham Adventures #10
    • Titans #1
    • Clan Apis #2 (of 5)
    • Black Panther v2 #5
    • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 (of 6)
  • February
    • Gotham Adventures #11
    • Clan Apis #3 (of 5)
    • Superman & Batman: Generations #4 (of 4)
    • Astro City v2 #16
  • March
    • Gotham Adventures #12
    • (Dork Tower #3)
    • The Authority #1
    • Transmetropolitan #21
    • Stinz: Charger TPB
  • April
    • Gotham Adventures #13
    • The Authority #2
    • Transmetropolitan #22
    • (Planetary #3)
  • May
    • Gotham Adventures #14
    • The Authority #3
    • Black Panther v2 #7
  • June
    • Gotham Adventures #15
    • Thunderbolts #29
    • The Adventures of Evil and Malice #1 (of 3)
    • (Dork Tower #4)
    • Astro City v2 #18
    • Clockwork Angels Graphic Novel
  • July
    • Transmetropolitan #25
    • Clan Apis #5 (of 5)
    • Thunderbolts #30
    • The Amy Unbounded half of the Amy Unbounded/Galaxion Flip-book
    • Planetary #5
  • August
    • The Authority #5
    • Dork Tower #5
    • I Feel Sick #1
    • Dork! #7
    • World's Finest #7 (of 10)
    • Quantum & Woody TPB #4
  • September
    • Astro City v2 #19
    • Stinz v3 #8
    • Deadpool #34
    • Black Panther v2 #11
    • Avengers #1.5
    • The Authority #7
    • Dirty Pair: Start The Violence
    • The Adventures of Evil & Malice #2 (of 3)
  • October
    • Amy Unbounded #9
    • Black Panther v2 #12
  • November
    • Stupid, Stupid Rat-tails #1 (of 3)
    • Avengers v3 #23
    • Akiko #36
    • Quantum & Woody #19
  • December
    • Stupid, Stupid Rat-tails #2 (of 3)
    • Galaxion #11
    • Titans #12
    • Mysterymen Anthololgy #1

    Well, time to do some totting up. You'll notice that Gotham Adventures was just rolling along, then vanished. That's because Ty Templeton stopped writing the book with #14, and while a couple of the initial issues not by Templeton (#13, #15) were very good, the new team seems to have run out of steam. Ellis clocks in with ten mentions on this list, starting strong and then sort of fading. Priest gets a respectable 7 (with one a reprint), good considering he was only on one book for a good chunk of the year. Most consistent performance is hard to judge, since monthly books get a bit of a penalty here, but Gotham Adventures did the best job of a monthly regular series. Stupid, Stupid Rat-tails managed to get every issue in the Strongly Recommended category, but Diamond's decision to not ship any smaller publishers the last week of 1999 pushed #3 into January. Clan Apis got 4 out of 5 into the Strongly Recommended level, and you should really get the upcoming TPB if you don't already have the individual issues.


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